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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25588582">Camrilla</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elohssa/pseuds/Elohssa'>Elohssa</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Blood and Violence, F/M, Gen, M/M, POV First Person, People dying offscren, Supernatural Elements, Suspense, wierd</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 04:47:22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>30,633</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25588582</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elohssa/pseuds/Elohssa</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>I was heading home, one cold winter evening. In a field of snow, I met a guy without gloves, and nothing was ever the same again.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. I - Beginnings</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was a splendid night. The snow covered the landscape and it was lit up the stars and the full moon. It was nearly as bright as during day except that it was as if the colours had been drained, everything was different shades of grey. It was cold; my breath formed clouds round me and froze at everything it made contact to. </p><p>I loved this kind of weather. While I could wax poetic about the niceties of being warm, this was where I belonged. The world cold and frozen, but not dead. Just waiting. Just dormant. Wanting to spring back to life, but not now, later.</p><p>But, who am I? I’m a kinda normal girl. Grew up in a rural town with my family (parents and a younger brother). Went through school with passing grades, had an affinity for maths and languages. Went on through college to basically prepare for university, but was currently on a sabbatical to figure out how to proceed in life. I was working a low paying job and planning my future. Looks wise I’m short, blue eyed, brown haired. Athletic rather than the modern ideal of thin, but comfortable in my own skin. My only defining feature is the small bit of brown in the otherwise blue iris of my right eye.</p><p>I was on my way home from practice. It wasn’t really late, but in this part of the world darkness comes early and leaves late during winter. Whatever light manages during day is mostly weak and lasts only a few hours. Practice had been good and I was feeling good about myself. My body was tired from the workout in the way that makes you feel nice. </p><p>To my right, a field of untouched snow. It’d been snowing for a couple of days so the snow was flat on top and inviting. I couldn’t resist walking across it to leave my prints across the virgin surface. The snow protested against my weight in the way it does when it’s cold enough. It sounds almost like it’s groaning. Looking back across my shoulder I could see the slightly crooked line trailing behind me. Looking ahead again, there was suddenly a person. A person with the greenest eyes I’d ever seen. Green for real, not just the odd version of brown that people want to call green.</p><p>How could I have missed him getting there?</p><p>”Hello.” He said and extended his hand. I looked at the hand. It was glove-less. How could he stand that in this weather? I was wearing mittens.</p><p>”Hi there.” I answered. Still looking at the hand.</p><p>"Come" he said. And I took his hand.</p><p>I woke up cold and in the dark wondering where I was and what had happened. This was, quite obviously, not my room. Not only does my room never get completely dark, the street lights from the neighborhood shines through my windows, but I was also laying on a hard floor. A hard stone, or perhaps tile, floor. </p><p>Freezing as I stood up, I realized that while I was wearing my clothes, my jacket, gloves, scarf and hat was missing. I really needed them, too. While it wasn’t as cold in here as where I’d last remembered being, it was plenty cold enough. Having gotten upright, I shuffled forward, one hand outstretched in front of me, the other awkwardly to the side trying to orient myself. It didn’t take long for me to find first one wall, then another. By the feel of it, made from the same material as the floor. </p><p>I sank down to the floor in the corner. My back to the walls and my arms around my drawn-up knees. I had no idea how I’d ended up here, or how long I’d been here. But I was quite sure I wouldn’t survive here for too long. But for now, now I needed to re-group and get my growing panic under control. I closed my eyes to try and keep the oppressing dark on the outside of my head and tried to calm down.</p><p>Being scared is one thing. That’s acceptable being afraid is a survival trait that’s severely underrated. But the panic. Panicking is not good and leads to disastrous results. I needed to able to think. For now, I was safe. For now, I’d survive, though in the long run I need to move and get out of here soon.</p><p>Suddenly a clang echoed through the dark. the sound of metal interacting with metal and a disturbance in the, before too still, air. A paler rectangle appeared, not light but a less compact darkness. A movement in the air in front of me made me press my back even further back into the corner and I stood up.</p><p>“There you are. I didn’t mean to lose you like that”. It sounded like the guy in the field of snow. I was unable to confirm, though, as it was still completely dark.</p><p>"You don't need to be scared” he continued. “Come, I’ll get you out of here. Scared and with panic rising a suddenly saw a pair of green eyes glowing as of an inner light. They appeared only a couple of feet in front of me. I couldn't take any more so I screamed.</p><p>"Hush child" the voice said, softly, slowly as if talking to a skittish animal. I felt a pair of hands upon my shoulders and wished that I could disappear through the wall, but I stopped screaming. </p><p>"Who are you?" I whispered. “Where am I?”</p><p>"That’s not important at the moment. Let’s get you out of here, first. Let’s go!”</p><p>"I. I can't" I asked still unable to raise my voice.</p><p>"Why not?" he asked his voice sounding curious "Come."</p><p>"Because I can't see anything!" I whimpered "It's dark" I added as an afterthought in case he had missed it.</p><p>"Come on. I know it might be difficult but if you trust me for a bit, we’ll soon be out of here." </p><p>His hands left my shoulders, one went to my left hand the other didn't come back. I felt a slight pull in my arm and when I followed with a small step, it was answered with a reassuring pressure around my hand. I took another step towards the patch of paler black and the weird glowing eyes were no longer there, I figured it was because their owner had turned away from me. </p><p>Step by painfully slow step I was led through the nothingness, his hand in mine my only source of guidance. Clearing what I presume was a door we turned to the right and saw a distinctly paler grey opening 30 feet or so away. Eager to reach whatever light there was I sped up my pace from a crawl to a slow walk.</p><p>Clearing the doorway, I could see a corridor in front of me lit up by torches. I started wondering who’d be using torches nowadays. And inside no less. But I was so happy to be able to see something, anything, that I could quell my curiosity. Gaining a bit of confidence with the increasing light I began to walk at my usual pace and the hand let go of me, knowing I didn't need his support any more. </p><p>I dared a glance at the person now walking next to me. It was the same guy I’d met in the field. He was standing at just over 6 feet with black shoulder length hair and a pale complexion. He wore tight black trousers made from a semi-glossy material and his shirt was a matted dove grey. He moved soundlessly, confident, catlike. In other words, he moved like someone who had complete control over his body.</p><p>He led me through what seemed to be a maze of corridors and stairways, until we reached a big wooden double door flanked by two people wearing swords and daggers. Actual, honest to god, short-swords. And some very long daggers. Both people were blond and of average statue and build. The left one was a bit bulkier than the right and also looked a few years older. </p><p>My guide inclined his head slightly and one of the tall blonds looked at us and said: "You are expected" and opened the door. </p><p>We entered a big office where the desk and bookcases were all made from the same dark wood. The bookcases were full of books, but no dust, and the desk covered in papers. The walls were bare stone but had several paintings hung on them as well. Most of them landscapes but one of them a blonde woman in a blue dress. A thick green carpet under my feet, matching the fabric on the chairs off the right. </p><p>And, there was someone sitting behind the desk in the windowless room. At least the room wasn’t lighted by torches, instead there were candles. Candles everywhere. I saw my guide kneel and bow his head, following his lead I tried to curtsey keeping my eyes downcast despite my curiosity.</p><p>Curtseying is way more difficult than you might think. And hard. My thighs started burning from the strain almost immediately. </p><p>"My Lord", my guide said, with the uttermost respect.</p><p>"Emilio" the mysterious man behind the desk answered.</p><p>"I finally found her, and brought her before you." the newly named Emilio said. “She’d ended up in a cell on the 7th level, for some reason.”<br/>I began to rise from my curtsey because I was unable to remain my balance any longer. The damaged already done I decided to stand straight but keep my eyes at the carpet.</p><p>"Figure out why later, Emilio. It doesn’t do to have that happen to our guests. Rise" The last bit was clearly aimed at me. Though I had already begun, and almost finished, rising still not looking at him. It was standing up or falling on my face.</p><p>"Child" He said to me as I slowly raised my gaze to met his. He had black hair and eyes in the same blue colour as mine. He was of an indeterminable height but looked lean in his green shirt covered in silvery embroidery. "I'm glad you were found and that you’re finally here."</p><p>"Excuse me, sir” better stay polite, even though I have no idea what’s going on “But where is here?" I dared to ask. My eyes travelling downwards again as I felt uncomfortable meeting his stare. And child? Why would he call me that? And… hadn’t Emilio also called me that, earlier? What was with these guys?</p><p>I had thought that getting out of the cold cell had saved me, but I was no longer so sure that this was the case. I was suddenly very aware of the fact that all four people I’d seen so far were reasonably young men in good shape. This was not good.</p><p>"We are in the Camrille Coven."</p><p>"Forgive me, sir, but I still don't understand" I tried to stay with the polite theme. The man was still looking at me very intently and it was starting to weird me out. He ignored my question. I remained silent, not knowing what to say or do. Glancing at my guide, I saw that he was still kneeling, eyes downcast, silent, still. As far as I knew, he hadn't moved since taking that position. I was both curious and unnerved by his, to me, strange behaviour. </p><p>"You may rise Emilio" the person behind the desk said, as if he had been sensing my distress.</p><p>"Thank you, my Lord" I quietly wondered what kind of person deserved a title uttered with as much respect that Emilio had managed.</p><p>"Emilio, why don't you explain to our young guest who I am."  </p><p>Without turning towards me Emilio started speaking, very softly.</p><p>"His Highness is the Rector Lamia and the High Prince of the Camrille sect." There was that word again, Camrille, something told me I was supposed to know it. What was a Rector Lamia? What was he talking about? This explanation wasn't explaining anything to me, it was just making things more and more complicated. And High Prince? Did that make a Low Princess a thing?</p><p>"Emilio, you may leave us now." the High Prince and Rector Lamia said. I didn’t like that idea. While two against one were bad odds, Emilio was the closest thing to something familiar I had in this thoroughly strange place.</p><p>"My lord" Emilio said, bowed and left the room. When the door had closed the man rose and walked around the desk, he stood there, facing me.</p><p>"Look at me" he ordered.</p><p>I met his blue eyes steadily and found myself unable to look away, in the end it was he who broke the link. It was highly discomfiting and I was now even more unnerved and started regretting ever getting out of bed … this morning? Who knew how much time had passed. Would people be out looking for me? Would I be missed?</p><p>"Emilio's answer didn't help much did it? He asked, and after a bit of nervous floundering I decided to agree.</p><p>"No. Who or what is the Rector Lamia? Or is it your name? What is the Camrille Coven, or sect? And what am I doing here?" I asked all of my questions at once, hoping that at least some of them would get answered. He countered with a question of his own.</p><p>"Who were your parents?" 'which is a really odd thing to ask. What did my parents have to do with this? On the other hand, it was information that was mostly harmless, wasn’t it? Keep the weird man appeased while stuck in a small unfamiliar room with him.</p><p>"Thomas and Christine Smith." </p><p>"They are your adoptive parents" he said with quite a bit of emphasis as he started leaning towards me. This was getting really weird and uncomfortable. And while I was frightened, I didn’t think he was going to harm me. But I couldn’t let that stand uncontested.</p><p>"No"</p><p>"YES!" His eyes flared and there was no question that that statement was final, and it felt like a truth. His eyes left me and the started pacing back and forth in front of the desk. </p><p>"But.. but… why?" why wouldn’t they have told me? Why would this man, High Prince Camilla- whatever, tell me? Why was I here? Pick one. One simple statement from a stranger and I was supposed to be root-less? All alone in a sea of uncertainty. I wasn’t convinced, although the Rector Lamia surely was.</p><p>"Because I asked them to take you in. And not to tell you." Anger and hatred flared up inside me. How dare he, this stranger, to say these things to me. Some of the outrage died, however, when I saw the expression on his face. The greatest of sorrows. </p><p>"Why?" and a thought hit me "If this is true, did you know my real parents?" I asked, hoping to keep the still-pacing man from doing something more violent than walking. </p><p>"Yes. Yes, I did. Your mother was Morwenna, she died 12 years ago." The man looked sad, but stopped moving. "Your father, is me" <br/>I stared at him. I started thinking that this must be a bad dream, brought on by bad eating habits and cheesy movies. Or perhaps candid camera? Because this kind of thing does not happen I real life. This is Hollywood crap. </p><p>"Then why would you leave me?" I asked not really believing, and far from accepting, what he said. Still, curiosity in part, and fear, and a desire to keep the volatile man as calm as I could. </p><p>"We didn't have a choice" The sad tone still in his voice. And thankfully he was keeping still again. "The point is that" his voice grew stern and lost every trace of emotion. He pointed at me "You are of the Camrille sect, and even its Royal family. You’ve been brought home to fulfil that role." He had to be joking. This movie just turned from bad to horrendous. "No I'm not joking" he continued. </p><p>I started wondering if he was reading my mind. He managed to look slightly embarrassed and I suspected that it was exactly what he had been doing. Which was scary in a whole other way than the fears I’d suffered so far in this place.</p><p>"What is your name? Or is Rector Lamia your name?" I was getting bolder when I noticed that he’d been stalled a bit by the eventual mind reading stuff. </p><p>"No, Rector Lamia is simply a title of mine, just as High Prince is. My name is" he paused for a breath "Vladimir Alucard." The name rung a bell but I couldn't place it. My head spun with all the information I had gotten. I wasn't sure what to do with what I had learnt. <br/>The man, Vladimir I reminded myself, had wandered back around the desk and taken a small box from a drawer.</p><p>"I want you to have this. You won't understand yet but you have to use them." I accepted the box. It was small, a couple of inches across and made out of wood. It rattled slightly when I shook it. I went to open it but was stopped.</p><p>"Wait until you get to your quarters" he smiled. "one of the guards will show you where they are" I might not have spent any time with nobility of any sort, but I could recognize a dismissal when I heard one.</p><p>"Good…." I started before I realised I had no idea what time it was.</p><p>"Night" he provided smiling.</p><p>"Good night" I smiled back and exited. </p><p>"Please follow me" one of the blonds outside the door said. Apparently he was a guard. For Vladimir? I wondered what he might be guarding against in this complex. So far, the two so called guards were the only other people I’d seen apart from Emilio and Vladimir. <br/>The guard headed off to the right, down the torch-lit corridor. We didn’t move far, though, and soon we were standing outside another set of wooden double doors. </p><p>“Here you are, we hope you will enjoy your stay.” he said and opened one of the doors for me. </p><p>"Thank you.” He nodded in response and said</p><p>"If you need something you know where to find us" With those words he turn around and walked back the way we came.</p><p>The room was decorated much in the same way as Vladimir's office, dark wood and green carpets. No windows to be seen and lit by candles. The room looked like a sitting room with a sofa and a couple of chairs arranged around a small table in one corner. Along part of a wall was some shelves with books. A small desk was along another wall and a big dinner table with six chairs was placed as much out of the way as it could. </p><p>And a fire place. A huge thing with a mantle piece and one of those fancy metal screens with scroll-work and an image of pheasant or such on it. A couple of logs were smouldering in it. There were also three more doors.</p><p>The first door I opened led to a bathroom, toilet, shower and bath which looked more modern than I had presumed, considering I still hadn’t seen any sign of electricity. It was made in white and blue tile and had really fluffy blue towels.</p><p>The second door was locked, and the third led to a bedroom. It wasn’t very big and mostly dominated by an enormous four poster bed. The hangings and spread the same green that’d started out being some kind of theme. The spread also had some kind of grey symbol stitched on it. A bird, perhaps. There was also a big dresser with the same symbol on the doors. A small bedside table, on the left, and another fluffy, thick carpet. Still green.</p><p>I was still scared. And upset. But I was also getting tired, and a body cannot hold on to fear for forever and sleep is important. I couldn’t find a way to lock the doors into the corridor so I wedged a chair under the handles hoping it’d at least slow down any person trying to get in. I put another one under the door to the bedroom. I took my shoes and socks of, and my sweater but left my jeans and t-shirt on. Jeans are not comfortable as sleepwear, but I felt vulnerable and didn’t want to undress further. And at least the t-shirt had a unicorn print on it, practically pyjamas. </p><p>The bed was very deep, the comforter was heavy and thick. Probably made from real down. As were the pillows. The linens were stiff but soft to the touch and a pale cream. </p><p>I woke up in the warm bed. I came to the conclusion that this was much better than the last time I woke up and didn’t know where I was. But I was still here, in the Camrille coven and no idea of how to get out of here. I think I’d been here for at least 24 hours. And people outside ought to start missing me by now. I’d missed work, if nothing else.</p><p>I got out of bed, reluctantly. It was warm, and somewhat safe, but I needed to find a way to get back home. I put my shoes and shirt back on, removed the chair from the door and went into the main room again. It didn’t look as if anyone had been in here. The chair was still where I’d put it.</p><p>I spotted the box Vladimir, the person who said he was my actual father, had given me. I walked over to the small table, picked it up and seated myself in one of the high back chairs in the corner. In the box there was three rings, one gold and two silver. I picked up the first of the silver rings, it was ordinary ring, flat without markings, the second silver ring had an intricate pattern carved into it, both inside and outside. Five green stones was set into the outside looking like a part of the pattern. The gold ring held a clear stone of some kind, but had no other decoration.</p><p> Someone was knocking at my door. I got up and made my way over there.</p><p>“Who is it?” I asked. Hoping I’d get some time to prepare for whomever was on the other side.</p><p>“It’s me, Emilio. I have breakfast.” </p><p>"A moment, please!” I answered. But breakfast did sound lovely. It felt as if I was starving, I had no idea how long it had been since I’d last eaten. As I got to the door I moved the chair off to the side and then hesitated for a moment before opening the door.</p><p>"Hello" I still wasn't sure what time of day it was, so I went for the time-neutral option.</p><p>"Good morning" he answered with a slight nod. He was wearing dark trousers and a shirt the same colour as yesterday. He was also carrying a tray with something akin to breakfast on it. "Are you hungry?"</p><p>“Yes! And. Please enter?” I opened the door wider and stepped aside to allow him in. I never heard anything but I can swear he was laughing at me.</p><p>He placed the tray on the table and looked at me when he realised that there were two chairs were missing. Suddenly I felt defensive.</p><p>“I couldn’t figure out how to lock the door.”  I said.</p><p>“I beg forgiveness for that. There’s supposed to be a key in the dresser, but I guess I forgot to tell you yesterday.”</p><p>I didn’t know what to reply to that, so I sat down and started at breakfast. Toast, jam, fruit, cheese. And evil coffee. All my life I’ve been promised that I’d start liking coffee when I grew up. Still hasn’t happened. There was juice as well, thankfully. </p><p>It was lovely. Eating. Though somewhat strange since Emilio was still standing next to the table. </p><p>"Don't you want sit" I asked, and he did. He didn’t answer my question, though.</p><p>"I see you got your rings" He said, instead. He was looking at the box that was still sitting at the table. I looked at his hands and on his right hand a twin to the plain silver ring was settled on the ring finger.</p><p>"What are they?" I asked, as I opened the box again having finished eating. </p><p>"This is sign of the Camrille sect" he said and pointed at the plain silver ring, "you ought to wear it at you right hand like this" he showed his own ring. "This is the ring of the Camrille Royal family" he said pointing at the second silver ring "wear it on the same finger. And this" he pointed at the gold ring "you have to wear all the time. It's really important. Wear it on your other hand" As I slipped the rings on they fit perfectly. Which was odd and discomfiting. "Remember, do not take them off"</p><p>"Why was this so important? Vladimir, or whatever he was called, said the same thing yesterday" Emilio actually flinched when I mentioned the name.</p><p>"It just is. Please wear them, for now. You will understand soon enough.” He paused for a bit and looked at me until I put the rings on.</p><p>“Want to go for a walk?" he asked, suddenly. </p><p>“A walk?” I said, incredulous. </p><p>“A tour then? A chance to get out of these rooms?” I was torn by the suggestion. I started feeling curious and restless. Then there was the issue of getting out of here. Getting a tour might give me a chance to get out. Or at least find a way out. </p><p>"Yes, actually. Where do we go?" I decided to marvel at the opportunity to explore, my curiosity had the better of me again. He didn't say anything, he just smiled and led me out the door. Outside was a tall blond woman with weapons. No swords this time, just two daggers. Two that I could see at least. She ignored me as I passed by.</p><p>We spent quite some time wandering around. Around lunchtime, I guess, we passed by the kitchens and had lunch and then we continued. He showed me training rooms and gyms, what looked like classrooms, a couple of giant rooms akin to ballrooms. Everywhere were torches and candles, lighting the way. Which meant that I was severely impaired on a couple of occasions, when the light sources were few and far away. <br/>Emilio talked about the places we passed, and anecdotes from his own life. He was a teacher, and had some experience doing that. I learnt that he liked languages and dancing. What I did not learn was the way out. </p><p>I also found it odd that the place was almost deserted. Apart from the kitchen, I might have spotted another person once, maybe twice. Which was eerie. I really didn’t relish the thought of being stuck in this, admittedly, quite huge place, with basically only a handful of other people. Though I’m not very sure I’d feel safer with a lot of people around either. Fear is illogical sometimes. </p><p>We returned to “my” rooms after a while, and I was glad I had a guide. Because this whole place looked more or less the same. All the corridors were created equal, so to speak. When we returned another blond was standing by the door. This one male, very tall and very broad of shoulder with a braid of hair down to his waist. He’d forgone daggers for a broadsword. I might have stared at him a bit. Emilio said his goodbyes and also that he’d ordered food to be brought for dinner.</p><p>As soon as Emilio’d left I went to the bedroom, and the wardrobe to find the key he’d promised would be there. At that point I another problem presented itself. The wardrobe was full of clothing. Underwear, pants, skirts, dresses and shirts. The pants and skirts were of different styles and colours. The dresses and shirts were all moss green with silvery or grey details or embroidery. Clearly, someone else was living here. I went back to the door in the main room to see if I could catch Emilio, because this was an issue. What if the owner of the clothes came back?<br/>When I opened the door Emilio, of course, was nowhere to be seen. I had seen enough of the coven to know that I’d never find my own way, even if I knew where Emilio was. I had, however, forgotten the immense being with a frigging sword who stood next to the door.</p><p>“May I help?” He rumbled.</p><p>“I.. eh… uh.. yeah. How do I find Emilio, I think I forgot to ask him something?” I’m not always articulate when I’m surprised. I might also have been a bit intimidated.</p><p>“I can fetch him, if it is desired? He volunteered.</p><p>“Oh. Yes, that’d be good. I guess. I.. thank you. I’ll… just stay here, then.” The giant looked at me for a moment before he left. I went back into the room. To wait. Nervously. </p><p>It didn’t take long for Emilio to return. He was announced by the blond who politely knocked on the door and called out that he’d brought Emilio. As I let him in, he looked curious, but I could wait until the door was closed.</p><p>“Why is the wardrobe full of clothes?” I asked him, quite sharply. I might have been a bit more upset than I’d let myself feel. I did make Emilio look stunned. “When will the real owner come back for them? What am I going to do then?”</p><p>“Oh. Well. The owner of the clothes are already here, sort of.” Emilio was looking flustered.</p><p>“Did you chase someone out of their rooms to put me here? That’s not very nice, is it?” as previously stated, I might be a tad bit upset.</p><p>“I.. no. You misunderstand. Those clothes are yours.” He looked deeply uncomfortable by the revelation. And a revelation it was. What kind of weird ass place was this? And who’d done this? And why? I really needed to get out of here. “It’s hard to explain, but please know that these rooms are for you. No one else is going to come here. The clothes are for you to use, or not.”</p><p>“Well you’re not doing a very good job at explaining, are you? This makes absolutely no sense! I want to go back home!”</p><p>“I understand that you’re upset but you can’t go back, yet. I know it doesn’t make sense at the moment, but it will. I promise.” Emilio was talking very slowly, very gently as if trying to calm down a skittish animal. Which I guess is pretty much what I am at the moment.</p><p>“You kidnap me and put me in a freezing cell to die. Then you ‘happen’ to discover me, and bring me to a mind-reading, I can’t believe I’m saying that, or believing it, lunatic who says he’s my long-lost father that I never lost. Then you stash me here, in this weird coven thing that looks like a computer game gone wrong, and then you tell me it’ll make sense?” I was going from upset to full blown freak out quite quickly.</p><p>“Please calm down, Alexis. I understand that you’re upset but I promise you’ll be home in no-time.” As he was speaking he took a step back. </p><p>“I’m not sure your promises are worth anything since you’re the one who brought me here! I just want to go home. Please.” I’d resorted to begging. And my anger was gearing towards distressed. I might be quick to anger, sometimes, but it also tends to run out quickly. And I’d been running a lot of feelings in the last day or so. Being abducted isn’t very restful, who knew.</p><p>“I don’t know what to do to make this better.” Emilio said after a long pause. He then lifted a hand and moved towards me. When I flinched away he stopped, dropped the hand and moved away again.</p><p>“I’m not sure you can. Just. Leave. Please.” I couldn’t handle having him near any more. I just wanted him, and myself, to be somewhere else. He looked resigned, and relived, and left without further comment. Thankfully. </p><p>I fell into the couch, which wasn’t half as comfy as it looked, and an undetermined amount of time later there was a soft knock on the door and the tall blond man said that dinner had been delivered. I got up, slowly and went to the door. I wasn’t really hungry, but wasn’t up to sending the food back either. As I opened the door, I pointedly didn’t look at the blond while accepting the tray. He’d probably heard every word I’d, more or less, screamed at Emilio. He didn’t comment, though, except to say to return the tray when I was finished. </p><p>I don’t know what food it was I ate, I couldn’t be bothered to care, but knew that I needed to eat so that I’d have a chance to get out of here. From what Emilio’d said earlier it didn’t sound as if I was here to be killed. And it did seem as if there was a chance to go back home, eventually. I still couldn’t figure out what they wanted me for, though. It wasn’t as if my family had any money or such to give as ransom. <br/>When I had finished I returned the tray to the giant blond, and decided to go to sleep. I did lock the door this night (and put the chair under the door knobs again, because reasons), and picked something from the wardrobe to wear. I did not fancy sleeping in my clothes, my OWN clothes once again. </p><p>I woke up in the, admittedly very comfortable and warm, bed in the strange place once again. I’d slept well, but my shoulders and neck were hurting from tension and a headache was brewing. I got up and took a very long, very hot shower. It didn’t make me feel much better but at least I was now wet. And clean, I suppose. I’d also picked out one of the shirts, which was green, from the wardrobe to wear. And clean underwear.</p><p>Emilio’d brought breakfast again, but I shut him out when he tried to get in. Not that he tried very hard. The giant had gone, instead there was a red-haired tall woman with a rapier. Or épée, a very long and pointy sword of some description. What’s up with the swords? At least Emilio and Vladimir hadn’t been carrying any.</p><p>I spent the day exploring the rooms a bit more. The books were mostly novels, and I started reading one but couldn’t focus. Then I scribbled a bit on some paper I found in the desk. I ended up writing a letter to my parents. I had a small hope that maybe it’d reach them. But at least writing it made me feel better. Emilio brought lunch and dinner as well, but didn’t speak or ask to come in again. By, what I supposed was, evening I was thoroughly bored and hated being stuck in the rooms. Rooms prepared by weird people who brought clothes for other people and then stuck them in rooms – people!</p><p>By the next morning I was almost ready to forgive Emilio, at least for a while, if that meant I could get out of these rooms. It almost did look like a small tornado had touched down very briefly inside the room. I think I’d managed to move every single piece of furniture a least somewhat during yesterday’s explorations.</p><p>In the end, I did let Emilio in when he brought breakfast again, but when he tried to start talking, I shushed him and ate the food. </p><p>“You can speak now, but I haven’t forgiven you, yet” I said when I’d finished eating.</p><p>“I… understand.” Was all he said.</p><p>“Can we do something?” I asked, very eloquently. </p><p>“Something?”</p><p>“Yes, anything. I need to get out.”</p><p>“We can take another walk. Or go dancing.”</p><p>“Dancing? Who dances? I don’t know how to dance.”</p><p>“Come on then, it’s decided, we’ll go dancing. I’ll show you, it’s easy.”</p><p>Despite what Emilio might have claimed, dancing is not easy. I, apparently, have almost no sense of tact or rhythm. Which seemed to amuse Emilio to no end. He never outright laughed at me, but I could tell it wasn’t far off. But the exercise did make me feel better, or at least less restless which was a good thing. </p><p>Again the rest of the coven we passed through was strangely deserted. Apart from the guards at Vladimir’s door and the one at mine. It was the huge guy with the huge sword again. Emilio fetched dinner and stayed talking until it was time to go to bed. </p><p>The next few days passed in the same manner. Emilio would show up in the morning, then we’d do some kind of physical exercise; dancing, yoga, karate or something like it or even fencing. Fencing was a lot of fun, but I was almost as bad at it as I was dancing. When I suggested to Emilio that we’d bring the red-haired woman that’d been standing outside my door a couple of times he looked at me oddly.</p><p>As the days basically flew by, I lost track of time, I wasn’t alone for any considerable time, which might actually be have been the plan. As soon as I started thinking about getting out of the coven, Emilio would distract me in one way or another. The only thing that changed was that, on occasion, we’d now meet or at least see other people wandering around. Most of them minded themselves but every once in a while someone would greet Emilio. </p><p>One day, however, it changed. Coming back from another day of dancing and fencing, we were heading down another of the indistinguishable corridors. I’m not sure of how long I’d been here, but all the passageways looked exactly the same and if I didn’t see the, quite distinct, guards I’d never find “my” rooms again. </p><p>We were walking, quite innocently, when we met two other people. A man and a woman, both dark haired and eyed. Dressed in shirts of the same blue hue. As we were passing each other, the man looked at me, then looked again and suddenly he’d pushed me up against the rough stone wall. </p><p>“Let me taste you, just a bit! I want...” He said, but didn’t have time to finish what it was he wanted, as Emilio was next to him. I tried to twist out of his grip, but I was stuck and not liking it.</p><p>“Don’t! Let her go.” Emilio said. The man didn’t seem very agreeable, as he twisted one hand into my hair and yanked my head back. Emilio retaliated by almost snarling something I couldn’t decipher. I’m not sure it was even a language, or if my brain just scrambled it when my fight or flight responses kicked in. The man yanked on my hair one more time, and brought his other hand up to my neck and squeezed, before letting me go and backing away. </p><p>“I was...” The woman started but didn’t finish as Emilio gargled at her. She turned and dragged the man away. Not that he looked as if he was planning to go in any other direction than the one she was dictating.</p><p>“Are you okay?” Emilio asked at the same time I said “What happened?”</p><p>“I’m sorry, that really wasn’t meant to happen. You’re supposed to be safe here.” Emilio said, while trying to inspect me for damage. At least, that’s what I think he was doing.</p><p>“I… can we go back to the rooms, now?” I said, begged.</p><p>“Of course, of course. It won’t happen again.” Emilio said, as if he could promise something like that. I just needed a locked door between me and everyone else and a shower. A very long shower.</p><p>There was a knock on my door, just as I’d gotten out of the shower. </p><p>“Gimmie a minute!” I called. Rushing into the bedroom to throw some clothes on. Guess what? Green shirt. Then I rushed back into the sitting room, my hair still wet and in my socks.</p><p>"Enter!" I called as I headed towards the door, wondering who it was.</p><p>"His Highness wants you to come to his office." Emilio said, as it was him who had knocked.</p><p>“I will… shoes!” I told him and might have slammed the door in his face, a bit. When I opened it again, I was wearing shoes and had my, still wet, hair up in some kind of do.</p><p>“Sorry about that.” I told him as I stepped through the doors.</p><p>“It’s all right. Wearing shoes now?” He said as he smiled.</p><p>“Yes. Yes I am.” I replied and pointed at them. The trip to “His Highness’ office” wasn’t very far so we were there shortly. The same two guards who’d been there that first day was there again, and they just opened the doors as we got near.</p><p>Emilio bowed and moved off to the side immediately. No kneeling today, not for him. I chose to curtsey, but didn’t even try to stay down, just a quick down and up. I knew from the last try that anything more than that wouldn’t be able to stay down. </p><p>“Good evening, Alexis.” Vladimir said. He was sitting behind his desk, not looking very pleased. “I heard there was a bit of an incident earlier.” </p><p>“Uh. Yes. This one guy threw me into the wall, for some reason. Emilio got him to back off. It was horrible when it happened and I’d rather not run into him again, but nothing really bad happened.”</p><p>“Nothing really bad?” He echoed me and I could almost feel the anger radiating from him. He almost visibly reined it back. “Though I will make sure you don’t have to meet him again. And be sure that he’s going to learn his lesson and won’t be doing that to anyone else again.” </p><p>“That’s good?” I offered, really hoping he wouldn’t turn that anger towards me. </p><p>“I would hope so! You’re not to be harmed!” His anger flared again and I couldn’t help stepping back. “I. You may leave.” He said, looking away from me.</p><p>“Goodnight” I said, and fled. Emilio was, thankfully, waiting for me outside. </p><p>"I wonder what that was all about?” I asked him, as soon as the doors had closed and we were moving towards my room again.</p><p>"His Highness wanted to know what happened.”</p><p>“Why?” I asked, a bit suspicious, a bit curios.</p><p>“Because he feels responsible. And he doesn’t want to see you hurt.”</p><p>"Why?" He stared at me his gaze asking 'are you stupid?' “Why would he feel responsible? And, don’t get me wrong now but, why wouldn’t he want to see me hurt? I guess it was his idea to kidnap me, after all.”</p><p>“He… is responsible for everyone inside the coven. Which includes you, at the moment.” Emilio said and completely and obviously ignored most of what I’d said. “I hope you’ll still be able to sleep and good night.”</p><p>“Good night, Emilio.” I said and closed and locked the door. Yes, the chair was still put under the handles. </p><p>The next morning Emilio brought breakfast, as usual. I guess we could have gone down to the kitchens, but that’d still mean Emilio would have to come and fetch me, so I wouldn’t get lost.</p><p>“I was thinking a bit about yesterday.” I started.</p><p>“Yes?” Emilio replied.</p><p>“Yeah. It was scary, that guy was really strong. But then again, he did stop, which was good.” Emilio looked at me and nodded along, urging me to continue. “But I got concerned about what he, Vladimir, said. He said that he’d make sure the guy learnt his lesson and that I wouldn’t meet him again. How is that even possible? And is he allowed to do that?”</p><p>“Just to make sure you understand this, Borgis, or the guy as you call him, shouldn’t have done that. Or anything like it.”</p><p>“Okay, I get that, but...”</p><p>“No buts!” Emilio looked upset.</p><p>“Fine, no buts.” I agreed. Keep the volatile men happy and calm. Might be my new mantra, that.</p><p>“The High Prince is responsible for everyone inside the coven, that also means he can punish those who break it’s rules.”</p><p>“What are the rules?” Emilio just looked at me when I asked that.</p><p>"You won’t have to worry about that, for now." I hoped that meant that I could go home soon. </p><p>"I still hope his punishment isn’t too bad. I’m not saying but,” I looked at Emilio who kept quiet “he did stop.”</p><p>"He ought to…" he didn't finish the sentence, instead he turned to watch the fire. "I'll give you that, even though I do not agree with the first bit.”</p><p>“I’ll take what I can.” Sometimes I do know when to stop arguing. We spent some time in companionable silence. There were no watches or clocks here, or at least that I’d found. But Emilio seemed to know the time anyway. After a while he told me we were leaving. I thought he meant to go do some dancing or something. I was wrong.</p><p>He lead me through the maze-like coven complex. In the end, he opened a door that was basically invisible, looking like nothing else but another part of the wall. </p><p>“You’re going to have to be very quiet in here. I’ll answer questions after, but either you stay inside and be quiet, or go outside. Do you understand?”</p><p>“I understand.” I answered, though I was now very curious about what was on the other side of the door.</p><p>The room that the door led to was small, dark and almost claustrophobic, containing nothing more than a few chairs, a very thick carpet and fabric hanging off the walls. Or, three of the walls. The last wall had lots and lots of little holes in it, which you could look through. When I did, I saw that we were looking down into one of the great halls. I’d only seen it empty, but today it was filled with people dressed in all kinds of colours. Most in trousers and shirts, but some of the women wore elaborate dresses. Most of them were talking quietly amongst each other, creating a dim murmur as background noise. </p><p>On a dais, in one end of the hall, was a big wooden chair. The chair was flanked by the red headed guard with the pointy sword and the big blond with the broadsword. The chair was occupied by Vladimir. Who didn’t look happy, or comfortable. He looked out over the sea of people standing around on the floor, and at one point, I swear he looked right at me. </p><p>When he stood, everyone quieted, turned towards him and either knelt or curtsied. They moved as if they were choreographed, and it created a kind of a wave effect. It was awesome. And scary. What kind of secret society weird-assery was this? How did this Vladimir guy get everyone to follow him in this kind of insanity? And how did me and my abduction fit into everything? The questions were amassing, but I wanted to stay and see what happened next, so I kept quiet.</p><p>“Rise.” He ordered and everyone got up. “I have gathered you here to witness the punishment of Borgis Cartion.” Vladimir said, and he definitely held both my attention and the attention of everyone in the room. Only Emilio was focused on something else, someone else; me.</p><p>“Borgis attacked a human inside the coven, this is not acceptable and I had expected better.” As Vladimir said this, Borgis was escorted forward by two dark haired people with enough bladed weapons between them to fill up a professional kitchen. He wasn’t restrained, and he didn’t seem to need it, either. Vladimir turned his attention from the people in the hall, to the person in front of him.</p><p>“Borgis, do you accept my right to punish you?” he asked.</p><p>“I.. I do, my lord.”</p><p>“I was judging you harshly, but it was pointed out to me that you did make an effort to restrain yourself and that you did abort the attack. Eventually.” the last word sounded ominous. “I will spare your life, but you no longer have a place in the Camrille coven, or the sect. You have safe passage until you reach the limit of our grounds, but you can never return. Do you understand?”</p><p>“I understand, my lord” Borgis said. He then looked at his hands and removed a silver ring from a finger. One of the guards next to him held out a hand, and Borgis handed it to him. As he did, a woman in a dressed that matched Borgis’ shirt bowed and stepped forward.</p><p>“I apologise, my lord, but I feel as if this is my fault. I should have taught him better. If my lord doesn’t mind, I will join my child in exile.”</p><p>“I did not expect this, Armina.” Vladimir said, and looked at her. “But if that is the way you feel, I will not stop you.” Armina looked at Borgis and Vladimir one more time, before curtsying, taking her own ring off and handing it to a guard. Vladimir inclined his head a bit at the gesture before standing up again. </p><p>Which was apparently our cue to leave, Emilio didn’t say anything, but pulled me out of the little room and into the corridor beyond. We started walking away. I had so many questions I almost didn’t know where to start. Almost. </p><p>“Would he really have killed Borgis?” It had sounded like that. Hadn’t it?</p><p>“I cannot answer that, though he was… not happy with Bogis’ behaviour.” Not happy. That was one way of describing it.</p><p>“Did you report on the conversation we had yesterday to Vladimir.” It was kind of funny to see the little flinch that name evoked in Emilio almost every time I used it. But I was also interested in the actual answer to the question, if Emilio really was reporting on our conversations, I’d have to be careful of what I said around him.</p><p>“I thought you did have a point, so I told him that bit.” I looked at Emilio suspiciously.</p><p>“Good answer.”</p><p>“I do not want to break your trust, but you did make a good argument in Borgis’ favour.”</p><p>“So, I don’t understand the punishment, though. Is it really bad that they don’t get to play darke-ages-court-life-RPG with your guys?”</p><p>“Darke-age-what?” I think I really confused Emilio. </p><p>“I still don’t understand what you guys are doing here. Or why everyone’s deferring to Vladimir in the way they’re doing. Or what abducting me has to do with this. Can I please go home?”</p><p>“I don’t know what to tell you. But it’ll become clear soon. I can promise you that, and then, I’ll tell you everything.” How comforting. Not. I wanted to know now.</p><p>“And if I want to know now?”</p><p>“I’m sorry, but you have to have patience with this for a while longer.”</p><p>“And if I don’t want to have patience.” I asked. Patience hadn’t ever been one of my strong suits. </p><p>“You’ll have to be patient still.” </p><p>“But I don’t like it. One bit. I’m so tired of this.” And I was. It might have been kind of an adventure for a little while, when most of the fear had abated, but I was tired of this and wanted my old life back. To be able to tell my family and my friends that I was okay, and figure out what to actually do with my life. Maybe I would go into law?</p><p>“I… can understand that.” Emilio finally said, after a long pause. He didn’t say anything more, though. He led me all the way back to my rooms in silence. I had a lot to think about and I’m not sure talking to Emilio would help the thought process.</p><p>A few of more days passed in the same manner as the ones before. Emilio would come by in the morning, then we’d walk around, talk and exercise. The exercise had developed further into some kind of hand-to-hand combat stuff (which I liked, I’d practised some karate when I was younger and I generally enjoyed it) and a chance to test out different weapons, including daggers, different kinds of swords and bows. No guns though. We went through quite a lot of different weapons, for fun, Emilio said. I appreciated some more than others. Some were fun to try but not for me, some were difficult to handle but a joy to play with anyway. Some were just heavy, unwieldy and made Emilio sigh in frustration when I failed, over and over again, to handle them properly. </p><p>One such day had started with dancing, that still wasn’t my favourite. But since Emilio seemed to enjoy it I guess it was all right. Even if he did look very amused when I really couldn’t figure a move or a series of moves out. He was very patient, though, and would demonstrate any move I just didn’t get as many times as I needed. I know I wouldn’t have been able to stand doing it that many times when the student apparently wasn’t up to it. </p><p>After lunch he showed me some unarmed combat moves. Which was more to my liking than dancing. Much more. At some point it digressed into some kind of free form fighting. Emilio was silly fast, and seemed to know what I was going to do before I did. It was fun, anyhow. He kept throwing me to the floor, over and over again. </p><p>"Get up.” He told me. Over and over again. And I got up, over and over again. Until I just couldn’t any more. </p><p>"Get up!"Ge yelled and grabbed the collar of my shirt, yanking me to my feet. "When I say up, you get up understood?" he growled. <br/>This made me angry, no I was furious. Here I was doing the best I could, which still didn’t seem to be good enough. This wasn’t even my idea, this was all him. I hadn’t even complained about the dancing. Much. I was tired, furious, upset, wanting to go home and I just couldn’t handle this stupid place any longer. I wanted to quit. And most of all, I wanted him to stop yelling at me. So I hit him. In the face. For the first time he winced when it connected, and he let go of me. I managed to keep my balance and started for the door. The world was oddly out of focus and I think that last fall might have given me a concussion or something. When Emilio spoke again, it sounded both loud and as if it was from very far away at the same time.</p><p>“Come back here. Hey, Alexis. Look at me.” He was so annoying I turned around to flip him off. “Ah, so it has started, has it?” I turned around again, aimed for the door when the floor suddenly, out of nowhere, the floor sprang up hit me.</p><p>I woke, or perhaps floated towards consciousness is a better description, in a very soft and warm place. Then I heard a couple of voices speaking, though understanding them was beyond me at the moment. The room was dark, which was a good thing because when I opened my eyes, my head exploded in pain. I think I might have groaned, because the voices stopped.</p><p>“How are you feeling?” Emilio asked.</p><p>“M’ head hurts.” Now that I’m thinking about it, I’m pretty sure that I could now see my pain as coloured lights strobing in time with the beats of my heart. “Wha’ happened?”</p><p>“You hit your head, but you’ll be okay. Just rest, you’ll feel better.” Emilio was still the one talking, bit I’m quite sure the other person looking at me was Vladimir.</p><p>"Mmm. Tired" I whispered in response. I was weak, just speaking this word made me feel like I hadn't slept for a week. Though I worried voice in the back of my head questioned whether sleeping really was good for a head injury or not. </p><p>"That's understandable" That might have been Vladimir speaking. </p><p>"Wha?" I made a questioning sound.</p><p> </p><p>"Just rest, Alexis. Rest." I did as asked, not sure I if I could have done otherwise, between the exhaustion and the pain. Though I think I might have heard Vladimir tell Emilio to make sure I had whatever I needed before becoming unconscious again.</p><p>Next time I woke up was more pleasant. I woke up faster and as I did the wonderful smell of breakfast reached my nose. I almost bounced out of bed but that was a mistake, I was still weak and my legs weren't cooperating and the world was spinning but before I hit the floor a couple of strong arms caught me. </p><p>"I see that you have woken again" Emilio said, humour colouring his voice "but you need to take it a little careful" I agreed with him a little bit. With a surprisingly strong arm around my waist he helped me to a chair. As I saw the food on the table I realised how hungry I was, I was ravenous. Something tasted slightly off with the food but I was too hungry to notice. After eating, I was escorted back to the bed and fell asleep once more.</p><p>Time lost its meaning, I spent quite a lot of time sleeping, and when I wasn’t sleeping I was eating. Emilio kept by my side constantly. When I complained about not having enough energy to do anything but eat and sleep to Emilio, he smiled but never answered. Then, suddenly, I woke up and didn’t feel like I’d been run over any longer. </p><p>“I think I’m okay now.” I told Emilio, who, once again was next to me as soon as I opened my eyes. I sat up, carefully in case the world wanted to go topsy-turvy again. It didn’t, which made me very happy.</p><p>“Yes, it seems that way, doesn’t it? Do you want to get up?”</p><p>“Yes, please. I don’t want to stay in bed any longer.” He nodded, put some clothes out for me and left the room. Between taking a quick shower and dressing, I thought I heard Emilio speak to someone, but couldn’t be sure. Maybe he was just delivering the news of me being awake, finally.  After dressing I felt pretty much like a new person. There was a slight tremor to my hands, but other than that, I felt fine. I felt awesome. I could take on the world. The tremor could be ignored, and hidden. Wouldn’t do to let Emilio, or anyone else, see it and order me back to bed. </p><p>“Want to go and find out what this has been all about?” Emilio asked, quite unexpectedly. </p><p>“Yes. So much. Can I go home, then?”</p><p>“I’m sure you’ll find yourself at home after the explanation.” Emilio smiled, and exited my rooms. We weren’t going far, though. Just to Vladimir’s office, which looked a bit different today. Gone were the papers and books that had previously cluttered his desk. The same thing had happened to the carpet and some of the paintings. The chairs were pushed to the side, by one of the walls. And Vladimir himself was changed, he was smiling and looking at me expectantly as we entered. While Emilio bowed and moved off, I failed at curtseying again. I did my best, right? But the only real instruction I’ve had was watching costume dramas on the telly. And I’d, almost, anything to appease this Vladimir if that meant I got to go home. </p><p>“Welcome, Alexis. Just one more thing before explaining.” Of course there was one more thing. Isn’t there always? “Look at me.” So I did. I looked at him. Looked him in the eye, and. Something was odd. I think. Did his eyes change colour? I think I might have seen a flash of red.  That couldn’t be right, though. Eyes don’t go red. I took an involuntary step towards him, and it felt as if heat was radiating from his body. Another step forward. </p><p>And then I was leaning against him. The lights were suddenly way to bright, and someone was playing the drums, slowly, in the distance. Despite the discomfort, I was at peace. I felt calm. I was standing on my own, it might be time to take a step back. <br/>When I did, there was no resistance from his side, he just let me go as I stood back. </p><p>"How are you feeling?" Vladimir’s voice didn't interfere with the drum, which was still playing.</p><p>"I don't know… bright… drum" My own voice echoed through my head and scared me because of how loud it was. Something smelled good, very good and I tried to figure out where it came from. </p><p>"Calm down, everything will be back to normal soon." As he spoke, the light began to fade and the drum became less annoying although it was still there, just as the smell. I blinked my eyes couple of times, and the light faded until I could see, and found myself standing in front of Vladimir who’s shirt was all wet. Something had splattered all over it. Vladimir himself looked happy, almost proud.</p><p>"Feeling better?" He asked.</p><p>"Yes… yes, actually I do, much better" I admitted quietly to myself that I was feeling good. Strong. Energized. Ready to do… something. <br/>“I can now formally welcome you, Alexis, to the Camrille sect. I should be the one to teach you our ways, but lamentably I cannot. Emilio will have that pleasure instead. If that’s agreeable, of course?” He waited for me to nod. “You are to listen to him, and learn from him.” Again, he waited until I nodded. “Do your best!”</p><p>“I...” I’m not sure what I wanted to say. To protest, to demand to go home, to disagree with the command he’d given me. But then I saw it, something pulled my attention to the side, and I could see a person on the floor. He was all bloody, and he wasn’t breathing. I realised that the wet stuff on Vladimir’s shirt must be blood. I then looked down on myself, and I was covered in the viscous stuff. </p><p>Then I had some kind of flashback, and, true to both Emilio and Vladimir’s word, I suddenly understood. Not everything, but enough. And I knew that the home I once had, and the life I’d once led, those were behind me now. Because it was I who’d killed the man on the floor. I’d bit him and drunk his blood. I was a vampire now, and so was the man in front of me. </p><p>That’s when I realised, his name. Alucard. It’s Dracula backwards, and I hit myself mentally for not figuring that out quicker. I also started believing that what he’d said about my human family might have been true. </p><p>“I can see you understand now, Alexis.”</p><p>“Yes, I. Yes… my lord.”</p><p>“Good. You’ll find Emilio waiting anxiously outside, I believe. You and I will speak more, at another time.” I accepted his dismissal, and tried to bow and headed out. As Vladimir had predicted, Emilio was looking anxious and was waiting for me. He looked at me but didn’t say anything. I didn’t really know what to say either.</p><p>“I think I need a shower.” Emilio just nodded and back we went. To my rooms. And another shower. Not everything I say has to be deep and on point, right?</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. II - Outside</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Alexis is driving people up the walls, reasonable precautions to fix it are taken.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Due to the nature of the first chapter, tagging correctly is difficult. Be ware of things that vampires do. Including but not limited to blood, violence and dancing.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>I ended up having a bath, as I’d somehow broken the shower head when taking it off it’s mounting. Half dried blood is very sticky, and I changed the bathwater twice before feeling clean enough. The clothes were pretty much a lost case, unless vampires (vampires!) had some kind of secret when it comes to removing blood from fabric. Though, if they did, there wouldn’t have been any need for Vlad to have removed the carpet in his room, would there? I might be rambling a bit in my own head to not have to think about what’d happened.</p><p>“How do I go about finding someone to fix my shower?”</p><p>“What happened to your shower?” Emilio asked, sounding quite intrigued.</p><p>“I have no idea, the shower head just shattered in my hand.” It looked as if Emilio was working hard at not laughing at me.</p><p>“Yes, you might have to look out for things like that. You’re stronger and faster than you remember. Your senses might be different as well.”</p><p>“Really? Anything else, I ought to be on the lookout for? Mind control? Stalking humans in the sewer?”</p><p>“If you, indeed, have been gifted with other extraordinary abilities, they won’t show up yet. They usually develop with time. Lots of time.”  </p><p>“Which I guess I have now.”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>“Because I’m some kind of supernatural tick.” Yeah. So while I might have understood what’d happened earlier tonight, I might not have processed it. Hysteria, here we come.</p><p>“What? Tick?” I think I broke Emilio a bit. </p><p>“Yes, vile little creatures that does nothing but drink the blood of their hosts and also, occasionally, kill them with diseases. Or do I have to kill every time I eat?” That was a horrendous thought. </p><p>“No, we’re not ticks! And no, we don’t have to kill.” That helped, a bit. I’m still certain of the vampire-tick theory. What did vampires add to the world, really? Apart from entertainment, ie films and literature. Maybe that was the thing, I eat you, and in return, you get to write stories about vampires that may or may not contain hints of the truth. Because I’m pretty sure that books haven’t gotten everything right. </p><p>“Well, that’s something, at least. What did he actually mean when he said you’re going to be my teacher?”</p><p>“I’ll try to teach you what you need to know to survive. Because of who you are, and who your father is, that might be a bit more difficult than most other vampires.” I think I pulled a face when he said that word. The v-word. I’m very sure I wasn’t processing this right.</p><p>“I. um. I think I need to be alone now.”  Emilio nodded and prepared to leave.</p><p>“If you need anything, the guard at the door will help you.” He said and left. I spent quite some time just looking at the door after he’d left.</p><p>So Emilio taught me. Hand to hand combat, knives (the bladed weapon I ended up being most proficient at), languages, vampire customs, laws and history, and more. And of course, can’t forget the dancing. Vampirism doesn’t help with dancing, which is totally unfair. I asked him about curtseying, at which point he told me I was allowed to kneel instead, if I wasn’t wearing a dress. I tried to punch him for not telling me earlier but he dodged it. </p><p>He also, heroically, didn’t laugh at me when I, reasonably upset, told him that a shirt in my wardrobe had attacked me. It looked as if my fingers had been stung by a jellyfish, burning red stripes across the tips. So, apparently some of the green shirts had actual silver on them, and vampires are ‘allergic’ to silver. It’ll burn if touched, and wounds inflicted by silver will heal humanly slow. So, which vampire would, voluntary, put real silver on their clothes? Vlad. Vlad would. This also meant that some of my clothing had silver on it. I put those in the back of the wardrobe and tried to forget they even existed. </p><p>As time passed, I was gifted with two guards at my door, at all times. Apparently that’s what happens when you manage to give them the slip one time too many. Vlad insists that they’re there for my protection, but honestly, how much danger could I be in, in my own coven? I don’t think I’ve annoyed anyone, except Vlad himself and maybe Emilio, badly enough to want to kill me. Some of the guards might want to strangle me, just a bit, but no killing. </p><p>The first time had been so easy it was almost embarrassing. The guard, Clay, had been happy to go fetch Emilio for me, and I headed off in the other direction as soon as he was out of sight. The second time had been more difficult, but I’d managed to get Emilio and Steven so caught up in something I had just been forgotten. The third time was by accident, promise, I just turned around and Emilio was gone. Father didn’t see it that way, though, and ordered two people at my door. It did make it harder to get away from them, though. It was annoying, and the almost constant supervision was grating. </p><p>While learning is fun, I really started resenting being stuck inside. I hadn’t been outside the coven since I arrived here, and though it was big, it wasn’t big enough. It’s just so much time you can pass without seeing a horizon and feeling the breeze on your skin. This led to some… less than well thought through actions on my part. Once again, I’d ended up in Vlad’s office having the same conversation.</p><p>“Alexis, you have to stop this behaviour. It is not fitting, it is not acceptable and it might put you in danger. Can you promise to behave better?” Vlad sounded stern and unforgiving, but not angry. Not yet.</p><p>“Yes, my lord.” I said, because that was the expected answer. But inwardly I knew the answer was no.</p><p>“Alexis. I can tell that you are lying to me.” Oh. Yes. The mind reading, I’d forgotten about that. It’s unfair to use it in conversation, though. “It is not unfair, and, in light of your recent exploits, I do not know what else to do with you.”</p><p>“Yes, my lord.” There’s really nothing else to say.</p><p>“Stop lying! What has brought on this childish behaviour?” I would not stand being chided. I was an adult hum.. something and I’d, honestly, had enough.</p><p>“Well, maybe the fact that I’ve been stuck in here for I have no idea how long, since there are no clocks because everyone old enough seem to have developed a sense of time which I haven’t got yet. Despite trying as hard as I can, I seem to be making no progress in learning all the things I suddenly have to know. I haven’t had an actual conversation with anyone apart from Emilio, and possibly you, in as long as I’ve been stuck here. And, frankly, I don’t know what to do with myself any more. I just...” I made a sound that summed up all the frustration and longing I felt. </p><p>Blowing up like that on Vlad might not have been the smartest thing I’ve done all day. Vampire hierarchy is mostly based on the strongest vampire being on top. That vampire will throw you through a wall to prove that point, or just because they feel like it. </p><p>“Are you done?” He asked.</p><p>“No. I also broke the shower again.”</p><p>“So all of this is because of a broken shower?” He asked, and I suddenly went furious. Was that all he took away from what I’d said? “Alexis!” he said, not loud but with quite a lot of emphasis. I swallowed back the anger, and something that tasted a lot like resentment. I wouldn’t do to let him see that. I struggled, for a while, before replying.</p><p>“Yes, my lord?” A vampire without control of their emotions wasn’t a vampire for very long. They are dangerous, to themselves, to other vampires, and to humans and therefore considered aberrations. They were killed in short order and much enthusiasm.</p><p>“Go to your rooms and stay there, for today. Do not lose your guards, do not antagonize them or Emilio. For one day. Can you do that?” He sounded doubtful.</p><p>“Yes. I can do that, my lord” And that was an honest answer. One day I could keep out of trouble, even if it meant hiding in my bedroom.</p><p>“Leave then, Alexis, and stay out of trouble.” I said nothing, bowed and got out of there, before he said anything else or decided on some kind of punishment or something. I wouldn’t put it past him, he’d done it before. Staying in my room didn’t sound like that much of a bother, to be honest. As long as it wasn’t for more than one day.</p><p>I was perfectly fine. For about a day. I’m guestimating time, but it’d worked okay, until now. The shower had been fixed, again, by some poor unknown peon. The rate I’d been at it I could possibly sustain a plumber for life. I should probably take more baths.</p><p>I was, however, summoned back to Vlad’s office and I sort of feared that the punishment that I’d avoided yesterday. His doors were, today, flanked by the blond giant, aka Michael, and Clay, who was blond but a much more normal size. They let me in without knocking or announcing me. That could either be a good sign, or bad. I was hoping for the former.</p><p>I went in, knelt like the good little minion I pretended to be, and hoped that Vlad was in a better mood than yesterday. Emilio was already here, standing waiting next to the seated Vlad. </p><p>“My lord.”</p><p>“Alexis. I have been discussing your odd behaviour with Emilio and we are both disappointed in  you because of it.” Vlad said and while I knew they both expected excellency of me but I did not need to be scolded like a child. “You are a child!” Oh, yeah. Mind reading. “You are barely two years old. There’s still so much you need to learn. You’re my heir, and as such what you do reflects on me. And others might use you, to get at me.” </p><p>“Yes, my lord.” I had no idea where he was going with this.</p><p>“But, those are my fears. No matter if you are 2 or 200, you will always be more exposed to danger than most other vampires. This has led me to keeping you inside, even past the point where other younglings would be allowed to spread their wings. We will, therefore, prepare an outing for you, and a few others.”</p><p>“Thank you, my lord.” That was awesome. And way better than punishment.</p><p>“But there will be guards. You WILL behave, and that also goes for the time until you leave. You will seize the foolishness you’ve been causing. Is this understood?”</p><p>“Perfectly, my lord.” I was little less thrilled now, but only a little. Going outside, even for just a short while would, hopefully, stop my restlessness a bit. With that I was dismissed.</p><p>Even though the trip would take time to prepare, according to Emilio there was much to do, I didn’t mind. It was suddenly much easier to focus on my lessons, now that (conditioned) freedom loomed in the distance. I might have mentioned this to Emilio, who muttered something about everything is easier to learn when you’re not being hostile. I choose to ignore him and the comment.</p><p>The day before we were set to leave, Vlad called me into his office again. I was more confident I wouldn’t get chided this time. After greetings he put his hands, palms down, on the desk and just looked at me for a moment. This made me quite nervous.</p><p>“Alexis, I know you have been looking forward to this. I might have tried to protect you too much and I am not happy with letting you outside.” Was he going to revoke my trip? It sure sounded like that. “Do not fret, you will be going. But keep to your guards. Listen to them. Be nice to Emilio.”</p><p>“I will do my best, my lord.”</p><p>“I have also been told that you see the guards as jailers, rather than being there for your benefit. I want you to think of this while you are away.”</p><p>“I can do that, my lord.”</p><p>“And one last thing. Your life as a human has ended and this is true for the humans as well. It has been taken care off. This means you cannot, and will not, contact any human you might have had a connection to. This includes your adopted family.”</p><p>“I… yes, my lord.” I hadn’t exactly planned on contacting them, but had thought about it. Had thought about if people had been out looking for me, were looking for me. </p><p>“Than you. Now, go and have a good time. Come back without having ruined any more showers.” It was almost as if Vlad was developing a sense of humour. I wasn’t betting on it, though, and took my leave.</p><p>In the end we were eight people going on this little outing. Emilio and me, two other younglings with their sires (the vampires who turned them), and two guards, Clay and Steven.  We had a two months planned excursion in the outskirts of a city hosting a big university. A group of people looking to be in their twenties or early thirties would fit right in. Also, lots of drunk students would make them ‘easy pickings’. Not my words. All in all, the plan for the trip (according to Vlad and Emilio) was to teach me, and the other younglings, to coexists with humans. The plan (according to me) was to breathe fresh air and seeing something but endless corridors.</p><p>Coexisting with humans is, apparently, a nice euphemism for not going crazy and killing everyone, not actually giving away that vampires exist and being able to find sustenance, all rolled into one. I think I prefer coexisting. Doesn’t sound half as intimidating as ‘don’t kill everyone while you rampage through town’. I was also hardcore not thinking of the feeding issue. Almost all of the humans in the coven where there of their own free will, and knew that vampires exist. Outside, in the real world, things would be very different.</p><p>The house was the two-stories-wooden-frame-white-on-yellow that are popular and very common in this part of the world. It was located on the outskirts of the city proper. It was relatively old, and large enough to accommodate all of us fairly comfortably. We all arrived in the early night time, it took some bickering to figure out who’d sleep where but eventually everyone had a room and went to bed. </p><p>I awoke to the terrifying sight of sunshine through lacy curtains. During all the lessons I’d had, the issue with vampires and sunshine oddly never came up. It hadn’t been an issue in the coven but it was quickly becoming an issue now. I crawled into the corner of the bed and then did what any reasonable adult vampire would do. I screamed.</p><p>“Emilio!” I might have sounded a bit more panicky than I had intended because I heard multiple sets of steps running through the house, but Emilio was the one that reached the door to my room first. At which point he saw me in a corner of the bed.</p><p>“Alexis? What?”</p><p>“You know! You’re quite remiss in your teachings!”</p><p>“I don’t understand, Alexis.”</p><p>“So, please tell me, o most wisest of teachers, is sunshine a thing for vampires, or not?” I think I heard one of the other people laughing outside the room.</p><p>“Well, then. Let me remedy this severe lapse. No. Sunshine isn’t lethal to vampires.”</p><p>“Good!”</p><p>“If they’re older than around a century.” I was about to leap across the room and strangle Emilio, sunlight be damned. </p><p>“Emilio!”</p><p>“Alexis, do you really think that your father or I would actually expose you to something that was sure to kill you? And not tell you about it?” I was about to answer when he continued. “Look at your left hand, the gold ring, it keeps you safe from sunlight, as long as you wear it.”</p><p>“Well, that’s all right then! Anything else that might accidentally kill me you haven’t mentioned yet?” I might not take to him being a bit glib about this very well. I might also still be a bit adrenaline fuelled. At least the other people were leaving the hallway outside. I guess they realised I wasn’t actually in danger.</p><p>“I’m sorry, Alexis, I’m not trying to make fun of you. But you did scare me quite a bit.”</p><p>“You? You were scared? There’s lethal sun in my room, that broke in while I was sleeping and you’re scared?”</p><p>“I. Yes, I was scared. Please go back to sleep, if possible, Alexis. We can talk more tonight.” I grumbled at him but he left and closed the doors. I carefully got up and closed the blinds as tight as I could. It didn’t shut everything out, but it was better than before. I also looked closer at the gold ring, the little clear stone set in it wasn’t clear now. It was an odd muddled yellow-brown.</p><p>Evening came, without me having slept any. Sun had set, and everyone trickled in to gather in the living room. Food wasn’t an issue. While vampires can eat and digest food, it takes energy, or whatever it is we gain from drinking blood. And nothing, nothing, tastes as good as blood. So eating food is a luxury, even though it might happen, which we didn’t indulge in often.</p><p>Conversation was stilted at first. Cathryn and Oscar, the other two younglings who’d been roped into this trip were all quiet, apart from greetings. Their sires, Rashid and Rebecca, however, soon started throwing digs at Emilio’s lack of teaching prowess. Much to the amusement of Steven and Clay who’d also heard the whole sunshine débâcle. Cathryn and Oscar were completely confused by the whole thing, but still refused to talk to me when I tried to engage them in conversation. I’m the big scary heir of Dracula, no one dares to talk to me. Getting out amongst humans would be a very nice thing.</p><p>It didn’t take too long before I had my shoes and jacket on, prepared to leave. I wanted outside. Emilio and Clay tried to get me to stay inside, while Steven just put his own gear on and prepared to follow me. Wise man, that Steven. </p><p>Outside was glorious and horrible. Loud and smelly and fresh and airy and light and dark. All at once. This was the first time I really got to experience the world as a vampire. It was louder and stinkier than I remembered. I also had absolutely no difficulties seeing in the dark, even though it wasn’t as easy as in more well lit areas. And everywhere was the odour of of human.</p><p>The two other young ones had been outside before, this was not their first time, as it was mine. So, apparently, the slow pace we moved at was due to me. There were humans in the coven, how else would we have access to what we need to survive? But not as many as outside, and of course, not in their ‘wild habitat’. So, that first night we took a walk, while everyone was checking if I was going to do something I shouldn’t. As the days moved on, we hit more and more populated areas. I even managed to convince them to go shopping with me. I’m not really a big fan of shopping but I did want to wear something else than green.</p><p>Yes, the green. Apparently there are several different bloodlines amongst vampires. Each bloodline has a set colour, and while interacting within the coven you wear the colour of your bloodline. Some bloodlines are ancient, some are young, some are dead, some are large, some are small. Green with silver was apparently mine, and while I don’t mind the colour scheme as such, I wanted something different for a change. </p><p>Through nagging I had also begun to wear down the stoic silences that occurred every time I tried to join a conversation. Rebecca and Rashid was getting better at treating me as an actual sentient being, instead of ignoring me and/or being unreasonably agreeable to anything I said. The two other younglings hadn’t gotten that far, though. Maybe they were sacrificing their sires on the altar of big-scary-dracula-daughter.</p><p>A few weeks in, however, I was deemed stable enough to handle something more intensive. A party. We were heading to an old fashioned semester-is-over party for university students. The party was to be held at a private property not very far from where our house was located. I have no idea who managed to score an invitation, or if one was even needed.  </p><p>We walked over to the house in the early evening. The house was huge, red with white edgings on the corners and around the windows. There were lights coming out of every window and I would have been able to hear the music from far away even without enhanced hearing. Do vampires get tinnitus?</p><p>As we approached the driveway something completely unexpected, at least to me, happened. There was another, smaller, group of vampires here. Our group had split up, to make it less conspicuous, I had gone with Emilio and Clay, while the others had broken up into two more groups. The new, strange, vampires as a group of four. And don’t ask me how I knew that they were vampires, I just did. </p><p>It was obvious that the other vampires had spotted us as well. I had no idea what the procedure was in a case like this, but I guess that’s one of the reasons Emilio was here. I was also feeling a bit like someone had ignored the parts of my so called education that related to being outside the coven.</p><p>Amongst the strange vampires, one stepped forward. He was short with short dark hair and dark eyes. I couldn’t see his ring, or the ring of any of the other vampires, due to them wearing gloves. And for the same reason, they couldn’t see ours. Emilio moved forward as well.</p><p>“Good evening” the vampire said. “I’m Yiorgos Akriotis of Gradeft, well met.”</p><p>“Good evening to you and yours. I’m Emilio Estevanza.” I noted that Emilio didn’t mention which sect we were from. It also seemed like Yiorgos had realised the same thing, and wasn’t really happy about it. Though it didn’t seem as if he was about to give Emilio any grief about it, though.</p><p>“These are my friends, Yannis Gerorgiou, Sara Anderson and Ian van der Pelt.” Emilio looked at the vampire being presented but didn’t comment. Yannis was as dark as Yiorgos but even shorter. Sara was tall, wide and white blonde. Ian was very tall and very thin, with medium brown hair and blue eyes, and a face pockmarked by zits.</p><p>“My friends are Alexis and Clay” is what Emilio replied. I’m not sure why me and Clay didn’t rate surnames. I kinda understand why he wouldn’t give my real one, but a fake one? My human one? Any one? I guess Clay had a real surname, but maybe he was like Madonna. Yiorgios, however, did not look pleased with our apparent lack of surnames, but couldn’t do much about it.</p><p>We did head to the same party, though, and the mood between the two groups got weird when we tried to get our outer clothes of in the same narrow hallway. I was a bit amused with the whole thing, and also curious as to how these other vampires would act. </p><p>The party was loud. The music imitated the sound of a beating heart, quite well. It did, actually, drown out the sound of actual hearts beating by being so incredibly loud nothing else could compare. There were also coloured lights, heat and people, humans, everywhere. There were also a lot of alcohol and even a couple of different types of drugs. I had no idea what alcohol or drugs would do to me, but I didn’t feel the need to experiment either. A glass of coke looks a lot like a glass of rum and coke after all. </p><p>I danced with a host of humans, the other vampires had spread out all through the party and did vampire-y stuff. Except Emilio and Clay that kept an eye on me, but they were keeping a bit of distance, at least. I almost felt free, for the first time in a long while, I felt as if I could do what I wanted, and not just what other people told me to. It was a bit of a farce, of course, but it was more freedom than I’d been allowed in the coven.</p><p>Suddenly, my revelry was cut short. Yorgios cut in front of me. I ended up being more surprised about this than I really ought to have been. He was curious and I was, as the youngest vampire, clearly the weakest link. I don’t think I like this guy at all. As young as I might be (and I’m not 2, whatever Vlad says), I’m not a complete moron. Most of the time. So, just to annoy him, I put my hands in my back pockets of my, admittedly very short skirt, and continued to dance. </p><p>“Hello.” he said. “I’m afraid I didn’t catch your name.”</p><p>“I’m Alexis” I could take a hint, and didn’t offer a surname. “You’re Yiorgos, aren’t you?” As I was talking I could see Emilio slowly threading his way through the dancing humans to get closer to me. Clay was closing in on the other side, being way less subtle in his movements than Emilio. I couldn’t see any of the other friendlies, but assumed they were there. Yiorgos was older than me, more powerful than me, and if something happened I would be the most exposed one. </p><p>As the dance moved us through the sea of people, or at least a pond of people, I kept moving away from him, as I didn’t fancy being cornered. I’d removed my hands from my pockets but was very careful with him only letting him see the anti-sun ring, not the other ones.</p><p>“First time away from home?” He asked. I nodded and continued to avoid-dance.</p><p>“And you?” I wasn’t really interested in his answer, but wanted to keep him talking. Because it might keep him from doing something else.</p><p>“I’ve been around for a while.” He said, trying to sound all suave and worldly. Though he hadn’t been around for as long as he probably wished I’d assume. “So, why was your friend so remiss in introducing you?”</p><p>“I don’t know what you’re talking about” I said, trying to sound young and innocent. Not that it was hard. I wasn’t happy with where this was going, though.</p><p>“Come with me.” He said suddenly, and grabbed my arm.</p><p>“No.” I said, and when he continued pulling my arm someone else butted in.</p><p>“Dude. The chick said no. Let her go.” The voice belonged to a big, beefy man who was probably used to being the biggest, toughest guy around. He had no idea what he was dealing with, but I appreciated the sentiment.</p><p>“She’s with me” Yiorgos said at the same time I said “Don’t worry about it.” I really didn’t want the human to end up in the middle of this. Said human looked very doubtful. </p><p>“I don’t want to go with him, but he’ll let go of me.” I continued, tugging at my arm. “Won’t you?” I turned towards Yiorgos. I could see Emilio was near now, but so were the other three vampires that had arrived with the bullheaded idiot who still hadn’t let go of my arm. I glared at him and tugged at my arm again.</p><p>“Now, now, young lady” Yiorgos really emphasised the word young. Normally young vampires were at the very bottom of the totem pole and spent a lot of time doing whatever older vampires said. I was a bit of an odd one out there. I hadn’t come in contact with many older vampires and those I met most often, apart from Emilio and Vlad, had been ordered to do what I told them. So. Odd. Also, I did not feel like doing what this idiot had planned. </p><p>“Follow me.” He said and tried to haul me towards the stairs. I was not going to let him do that. I wanted to keep him away from the humans, if this went sideways. </p><p>“No. I do not want to follow you.” I told him and managed to twist my arm free. I turned and started walking outside, away from the humans who might be caught in the crossfire, or see something they weren’t meant to see.</p><p>I managed to get myself and most of the other vampires, friendlies or not, outside without getting caught by the idiot again. I really started to dislike him. Another good thing about being outside was that I was wearing gloves again, and could use both my hands a bit freer. </p><p>It took only a short while to get from the house to the relative invisibility amongst the trees. It was fully dark, but we could still see well enough. “My” vampires were very spread out, as I could only see Clay and Emilio. I don’t know if that was planned like that, if the others were keeping back, or if they’d simply taken longer to get out of the house. Yiorgos’ group, however, stood right next to us.</p><p>“You’ll stop now!” He almost roared. This time he got a gold of one of my shoulders and twisted me around to face him. </p><p>“And if I don’t want to?” So yes. Maybe antagonizing him wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve ever done, but sometimes you have to stand up to idiots. </p><p>“You little clan-less mongrel!” Well, wasn’t that an insult for the ages. “You will stay with me and you will answer my question. In fact, you’ll do whatever it is I want! I’m highly ranked in my sect and you… you’re NOTHING! His other hand came down and caught my other shoulder and he started shaking me. Emilio and Clay, as the little traitors they were did nothing. </p><p>“Has that pretty-boy sire of yours not taught you anything!” I wanted to reply to his comment but didn’t even know where to start. Maybe Vlad would like to be called pretty-boy. Maybe it was a compliment. Or maybe it was time to end this.</p><p>“You know what?” I told him. “I do not need to do whatever you say, I have the right to refuse, whether I’m clan-less or not. Which I’m not, by the way.” Had he been human, his blood-pressure would be sky-rocketing. As it was, his eyes started to go red and I think I might have pushed him a little bit too far.</p><p>“You will obey!” He roared, shaking me in time with his words. His eyes a solid red, by now.</p><p>“No”. I replied, my voice as soft as his was harsh. While he was busy shaking me and picked my gloves off. I had an idea but not sure how well it’d play out. </p><p>“Get down!” he yelled, and started pushing on my shoulders. I stepped into his grip and threw up my elbow, trying to nail him in the chin or nose. He jerked his head back, into safety, but also released my shoulders. I stepped even closer to him while turning, my back almost touching his front. While he was still getting his hands up, towards some kind of protection. I thrust my elbow back. He started to fold over, even though I hadn’t hit him in the solar plexus I did hit him in the stomach. Hard, and elbows are surprisingly pointy. I followed up by unfolding my arm and hitting him where it hurts. He did not see that coming, which gave me a chance to get away from him. </p><p>“No! I do not need to obey you! The only reason you’re so full of yourself is because your offspring is here with you and that somehow makes you believe you can boss everyone else around. You know what? You’re wrong.” While I had been hitting him, his friends had moved in closer, including Yannis, Yiorgos child. Though they’d discovered that my friends had all moved closer as well, and that we were twice as many as them.</p><p>I didn’t want to have to fight Yiorgos, not for real. It was probably more luck than skill that let me hit him in the first place. And him underestimating me. He probably wouldn’t be doing that any longer. </p><p>As it was, it meed as if Emilio had had enough as well. He’d, quite silently, snuck up behind the raging vampire and just as Yiorgos was about to launch himself at me, Emilio managed to catch him by the hair. While he was still unbalanced, Emilio put his foot in the back of Yiorgos knee and forced him to his knees. </p><p>The other vampires started forward, but aborted as my friends moved closer as well. Yiorgos tried to get up, but Emilio was quite effective at keeping him down.</p><p>“Kneel” Emilio hissed. “Kneel in front of your betters. And know that your trespass will be reported.” Yiorgos was still angry and fighting against the hold Emilio had on his hair and shoulder. “You and your friends will leave. I’ll let you up and you’ll leave.”</p><p>As he’d said, Emilio let him up. Unfortunately Yiorgos didn’t leave, he leapt for me, instead. I got my hands up, left in front of the right. If push came to shove, I’d rather use my non-dominant hand for defence, and leave my dominant hand, as unscathed as possible, to do the damage in turn. I caught the brunt of the force his leap on my left arm and then moved to hit him. But he backed off.</p><p>He backed far off. Looked at me again, and fainted. </p><p>We decided to leave while he was down. </p><p>“Why is it interesting things happen around you, Alexis?” Clay asked.</p><p>“Well, it wasn’t my fault this time! It was Emilio who started it. Yiorgos only got interested because he wouldn’t give us surnames.” I’m all for placing blame on whomever deserves it. </p><p>“I’ll let you know, I couldn’t lie to him. That’d be rude. Omitting certain facts, however, is perfectly fine.” Emilio tried to defend himself. </p><p>“Easy for you to say. You didn’t get harassed by a puffed up moron.”</p><p>“Alexis, something you said. You mentioned offspring?”</p><p>“Yes, Yannis was Yiorgos’ child. Couldn’t you see that? At least I assumed that was the case, it looks the same as between Rebecca and Oscar.”</p><p>“See? No. But your father can. I guess you’ve inherited it from him.” I didn’t like it when he referred to Vlad as my father. I was not about to just admit that the person who basically kidnapped me and turned me into a vampire was somehow related to me.</p><p>“Speaking of your father, this intrusion must be reported” Steven added to the conversation. </p><p>“What?” I asked. I’m curious, it’s a permanent affliction.</p><p>“We’re still very much on Camrilla land. Those vampires from Gradeft shouldn’t have been anywhere near here.”</p><p>“Are you saying vampires have territories?” My theory from earlier about someone forgetting to teach me stuff about the outside world seemed to be gaining validity.</p><p>“Yes.” Emilio answered.</p><p>“And you can’t go into someone else’s?” I needed all the clarification I could get my hands on.</p><p>“Usually there’s no issue about travelling through the territories of other sects, but permission is to be asked for. With you out here, there’s no way your father has given permissions to other vampires to travel or hunt here.” </p><p>“I’ll trust your word on that, because I have no idea. There seems to be some holes in my education.” Emilio did look a bit uncomfortable when I said this. So, I might be a bit mean to Emilio when I’ve been attacked by sunshine and random vampires. </p><p>Unfortunately, I’d run into Yiorgos again.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. III - Outside</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Please note notes from chapter 2</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Morning was approaching and the yellow house would never be the same again. It was now sporting three broken windows, a kicked in door, several holes in the wall and not a single piece of furniture on the bottom floor was intact. Due to the structural damage the house was no longer deemed safe from the sun, so the two other younglings and their sires shipped off to another safe-house and then to go back to the coven. I, however, was not ready to go back yet. Emilio had grumbled but, in the end, given in. He really wasn’t happy, but I was going to stay outside as long as I can.</p><p>The damage was due to Yiorgos. Of course. He’d fetched a couple of more vampires and had, apparently, somehow followed us back to the house. He had not been happy and I’m not sure if he thought attacking us was somehow going to cover up what he’d done or if he was just angry. Neither alternative proved any greater intelligence on his part.</p><p>The fight had been short but intense and dirty. Even though the numbers had been more even than in the forest, Yiorgos and his crew were not trained fighters. While three of us were very young, Clay, Steven and Emilio more than made up for it.</p><p>They came through the door and one of the windows. A coordinated attack, kind of. As I scrambled to figure out what was going on, Emilio had already dispatched one of them by throwing it through the wall. I’m unsure what happened exactly, as most of my attention was focused on the vampire coming for me. I moved around a coffee table, to create a bit of space. The other guy just picked the table and threw it off to the left. </p><p>I tried a kick, aimed for his knee. He moved back to avoid, which screwed up the follow up I’d planned. When he moved forward, I managed to catch his swing on my arm, and then punch him in the face. He looked a bit surprised so I did it again. Then he crumpled into a pile of limbs and blood as Clay had gotten up behind him and decapitated him with a sword. I have no idea where he’d gotten the sword, because I’m pretty sure he hadn’t had it before the attack happened. </p><p>As I looked up, after glaring at Clay, no enemies were still standing. Two were dead, that I could see. They were beheaded, which means dead, even in vampires. I think I could hear someone run away, which also meant that some of them were alive. </p><p>“I had that!” I told Clay. </p><p>“I’m here to guard you, Alexis. This is my job.”</p><p>“I still had it!”</p><p>“Yes, of course.” </p><p>“As long as we’re in agreement.” One of the other younglings started to laugh. I think the stress and shock of the attack broke Oscar a little bit, as he’d not given any reaction to anything I’d said before this. I also started laughing. It was that or… doing something very wrong.</p><p>Clay disposed of the two bodies inside and one left outside. I have no idea how. Plans for moving Oscar, Rashid and their sires were made. Argument about me not going with them was had, and then, then I went to bed. Since the fighting had been focused on the bottom floor, the bedrooms on the upper floor were fine. It’d be cold, since the a couple of windows were broken and the door were wide open, but it wasn’t a major issue when you’re a blood sucker. </p><p>The sun had barely risen when I was awoken by the sounds of cars on the gravel of the driveway. It was most unexpected as the house had it’s own driveway and the neighbours had paved theirs. </p><p>Then came the sound of booted feet and angry voices. Apparently someone had called the police. Lots of police. And they didn’t sound happy. They sounded even less happy when they got inside and saw the destruction. Maybe we should have spent some time cleaning up, but we weren’t expecting company.</p><p>I was unsure of what to do, but figured that ‘coexisting with humans’ did not include attacking or killing their police. Though I’d be happy to follow the leads of the older vampires on this. The footsteps climbed the stairs and soon enough the door to my room was kicked in and two police in heavy gear was pointing guns at me and yelling.</p><p>“Freeze!” the policewoman yelled at me where I was laying. In bed. Still. I don’t know what more they wanted from me. “Roll over and put your hands on your head!” She didn’t really need to shout, I have very acute hearing. But I guess it made her feel better about herself or something.</p><p>As I started rolling over, the other policeman yelled at me to freeze again. I considered shivering but doubted he’d liked the joke. Thankfully the police who first spoke just looked at him, which shut him up. I got the feeling it was his first time out on a thing like this. She did this whole routine where she’d pull the hands that I’d just put on my head at the small of my back as she put the handcuffs on. </p><p>Have you ever considered how difficult it is to get up when your hands are cuffed behind you? I know I hadn’t. It was much harder than I expected. In the end I had to use my cuffed hands as a kind of pivoting point to get to a seated position. From there it was easy, even though my wrists hurt something fierce from that odd manoeuvre. As I got up, the woman grabbed my arm and pulled me, sort of sideways, out of the house. </p><p>As I tried to figure out how to move reasonably quickly while being dragged sideways and not looking like a crab I saw that Emilio, Clay and Steven had also allowed themselves to be caught and were now manhandled in the same way I was. We were put in cars and driven to an oppressive concrete and glass building. I did realize I had a problem though. Well, apart from being handcuffed and driven off by the police. I hadn’t fed in a few days, yesterday hadn’t really been going according to plan. The sun was shining and even though I wore the ring that allowed me to not die of sun exposure, I still felt very tired. Very drained. And I really needed to have fed yesterday. This was, possibly, going to become an issue.</p><p>I was shown to a small interview room, with a steel stable, two chairs and a two-way mirror. Or, at least I assumed it was a two-way mirror. There was also a window in the ceiling, letting the sun in. </p><p>“Hello. I’m detective Black. You have been brought here because someone called in and reported a fight at your address. And clearly that was true.”</p><p>“I’m not sure I understand.” I said. Because I didn’t. It didn’t sound as if I was being accused of anything. Yet.</p><p>“Lets start with something simple; what’s your name?”</p><p>“I’m Alexis… Smith.” Yeah. Not going with Dracula in front of the humans.</p><p>“There was obviously something going on at your house. I’ve had reports of extensive damage. How else would you explain that? And, on top of that, you were arrogant enough to just stay in the house.”</p><p>“We were at a party last night. The house looked like that when we came back. There wasn’t much we could do about it in the middle of the night so we decided to take care of it when we woke up today.” I could see that there was a faint tremble in the hand that was on the table. I put it in my lap instead. That non-feeding issue might become more of an issue, and sooner, than I wanted. </p><p>“Who’re we?”</p><p>“Me and Emilio and Clay and Steven. And some other friends.”</p><p>“Other friends?”<br/>“Yeah, but they went back home after the party.”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>“Where was the party?”</p><p>“11 Grove street.”</p><p>“Private party?”</p><p>“We were invited”</p><p>“Did you meet anyone there?”</p><p>“Lots of people. No one in particular though?”</p><p>The questioning continued for a while. I had no idea where Black was going with this. Because of that, I also had no idea how to answer the questions to his satisfaction. After a while the questions just seemed to repeat themselves. A little while after that, he left me alone in the room. I curled myself into the darkest of the corners and tried to nap, sitting up. He hadn’t said anything about me being under arrest, just that it was an interview.</p><p>A couple of hours passed, and the symptoms I’d been experiencing were getting worse. I felt lethargic and shaky. I wanted out of the sun, I wanted to sleep, and I wanted to feed. Thankfully I was left alone.</p><p>In the end, Black returned to tell me they were keeping me for the full 24 hours. I was escorted to a holding cell, which also had a window which let the sun in. It wasn’t as strong any longer, night was coming, but not soon enough. A tray of food was pushed in through a small flap in the door. I wasn’t going to eat it though, I was just curled up in a miserable little pile on the rubber covered mattress. </p><p>“Why aren’t you eating?” Someone asked through the door.</p><p>“Not hungry.”</p><p>“You have to eat, you haven’t eaten all day.” </p><p>“And whose fault is that?”</p><p>“Fine. I’ll take the tray back, but you have to eat tomorrow.” Yes. I’d have to eat tomorrow, but not food. Darn. I wonder if Emilio’d ever gotten stuck in this kind of way before, and what was he doing at the moment?</p><p>Dawn arrived and I really wasn’t feeling well. I’d tried sleeping but all I’d managed was some short naps intersected with something that could have been either lucid dreaming or hallucinations. I wasn’t really up to playing nice at the moment.</p><p>After breakfast, which I didn’t eat, another guard chided me for not eating and then went to find some kind of medical professional. He also chided me for not eating. I had some kind of idea and told them I was claustrophobic and couldn’t handle being locked in. The medic made some humming noises and then agreed that that might cause issues. Black returned and brought me to the interrogation room.</p><p>“So, they tell me you haven’t eaten.”</p><p>“Yes, I am claustrophobic, and don’t handle small locked rooms very well.”</p><p>“Well, if you don’t commit crimes, that wouldn’t be an issue, would it?”</p><p>“I haven’t committed any crimes!”</p><p>“That’s what you’re saying. We’ve secured evidence that’s not being processed in our lab. It won’t be long until we’ll be able to prove you did it.”</p><p>“Did what? I don’t think you’ve actually accused me of anything.” Black seemed flustered by this but didn’t actually say anything about it. He then started repeating questions from yesterday but I didn’t feel like answering him. I sat there, mute, and tried to not think about how good he smelled or how I could hear his heartbeats. </p><p>In the end, they did release us after the 24 hours were up, since they had to. We had to give them an address of where we could be reached. Emilio had given them one of a nearby hotel of some description. The guys weren’t that happy to see me, though.</p><p>“Alexis, you don’t look very well” Emilio said.</p><p>“Yeah, I don’t feel very well.”</p><p>“Can you hold on, for a little bit longer?”</p><p>“Yes. I’m okay, for now.”</p><p>“You’re not okay, little lady, but we trust you.” Clay said.</p><p>“Thanks.” They hailed a cab and after a short ride, in the sun, we were at the, quite fancy, hotel. </p><p>I’d barely made it through the door, before I was cornered by all three of them. </p><p>“You need to feed now, Alexis.” I almost protested Emilio’s assessment, but changed my mind and nodded. Though I couldn’t figure out how I’d achieve that, it was in the middle of the day and I wasn’t that good at hunting yet. Maybe I could… My thoughts were interrupted by Emilio offering up his neck.</p><p>“I can’t drink from you!”</p><p>“Why not?” He almost sounded insulted.</p><p>“Come on, little lady. We’re older than you, stronger. We can sustain you for a little while. Allow Emilio to do this, and you can have a proper meal tonight.” Clay said.</p><p>“I…” Okay, I do know when I’ve been outmanoeuvred. I drank from him, and yes. It was very different from a human. I didn’t dare take much, but at least I wasn’t shaking any more and I felt a lot more focused. I stayed leaning on Emilio, even after I’d stopped feeding off of his neck. It felt nice to have someone to lean on, and his steady, very slow, heartbeat kept me grounded.</p><p>“What happened?” they asked.</p><p>“Well, I haven’t fed in a few days. They kept me awake in a room in direct sunlight for an eternity while asking stupid questions and kept offering food. Detective Black seems to think something has happened but wouldn’t actually mention or accuse me of any crime.”</p><p>“He did the same to me” Emilio said and the other two nodded as well. “I assume that either a nosy human walked past and saw the destruction,” that didn’t sound plausible, to me “or Yiorgos, or one of his people called it in as a tip to keep us from going back.” I was quite offended at that. Sore losers.</p><p>We didn’t have much more time than that before the phone rang. It was detective Black (who was quickly becoming my least favourite human), they’d gotten another 24 hour warrant to go through and we were to come in, immediately. </p><p>I was soon sitting across from detective Black again. In the same overly bright room as before. Apparently they’d secured some evidence of blood, which had upset the nice little humans. Of course they didn’t have any DNA matches, not yet, but their conviction of something dastardly afoot had been strengthened. </p><p>“So, Alexis. How did you like your little stint of freedom?” He asked.</p><p>“Too short.”</p><p>“Still don’t like small spaces, eh?”</p><p>“It’s a phobia, not something that passes in an hour or two.” He looked slightly insulted at my remark.</p><p>“Well, you might not be as smart as you think you are, if you go around omitting crimes in broad daylight!” I just stared at him and refused to answer any more questions. I was escorted back to a small cell, maybe the same one I’d previously resided in, and locked in again. </p><p>The small sip I’d gotten from Emilio was supposed to have lasted me until night and a chance to get a real meal. That wasn’t to happen now. On top of it all, I’d been forced to sit in daylight and I’d been awake for almost two straight days. I started feeling shaky around midnight. The decent from ‘okay-ish’ to ‘this is going to become a problem’ seemed to go much faster this time. Unclear of why, I couldn’t be bothered to care. I had to keep from losing it, and had to keep the humans safe. Or, at least not show the humans that vampires existed. I don’t think Vlad would like that.</p><p>I felt very alone. I know I had complained about always having guards near, or Emilio, and it had been very annoying. But I kind of missed company. I wasn’t used to being alone any more, and it was odd. The ‘conversations’ with Black couldn’t really be construed as company.</p><p>Morning came. Eventually. Tremors were running up and down my whole body as the medic guy once again chided me for not eating. He forced Black to keep some food at hand, ‘if I felt good enough to eat’ during the interview the following day. I spent the entire interview quiet, again. To the great displeasure of Black. I wasn’t quiet to annoy him, even if it was a perk, but I was afraid my fangs would show if I spoke. We were also released, again, after the 24 hours had passed. They couldn’t prove the blood wasn’t ours.</p><p>“You’re looking even worse, little lady.” Steven said as Emilio hailed a cab. I think I was going to regret the little lady remark. I was not little!</p><p>“I’m feeling worse.”</p><p>“Don’t worry, we’ve got you.”</p><p>And they did. We went to the same hotel, except now we went straight to the room instead of checking in, we already had a key. And this time it was, apparently, Clay’s turn to feed the starving fledgling vampire princess. Emilio and Steven went into another room of the suite and, just like yesterday, the police called us in almost as soon as I’d had my little snack. I’d taken a bit more today, but I didn’t know how long I, we, could survive like this.</p><p>“Hello again, Alexis” Detective Black said as I had, once again, been placed in the horribly bright interrogation room. I know they called it an interview room, but it sure did feel like interrogation.</p><p>“Hello.”</p><p>“Speaking to me now, are you?”</p><p>“I can stop if you prefer.”</p><p>“Well, as I said yesterday there was blood in your living room. I’m going to assume that you hurt someone, hurt someone badly, in there. Why would you do that?”</p><p>“Because we’re secretly vampires and we had someone over to eat? I don’t know what you want from me, Black.” I was getting tired of him.</p><p>“Hmmf. No need to take that tone. Had you been vampires you wouldn’t have been wearing rings, especially not at a party.”</p><p>“What?” I was confused. I’d meant my comment to be taken as a joke.</p><p>“If you tell jokes, then so will I. Everyone knows vampires don’t wear rings, isn’t that all over your popular vampire movies?” He sounded defensive now. “As is, one of your friends has told us everything. He told us yesterday and we’ve just now corroborated his story. Why don’t you just tell your version of events and I’ll talk to the prosecutor.” He was bluffing. Had it been true he’d been saying this during the morning session, not now. Also, I was very sure that none of the others had talked to him.</p><p>“If you’re going to lie, I’m going to ignore you.” And I did. He got angry and yelled at me, for a bit, but if I could ignore his lovely heartbeat, I could ignore the yelling. In due time, I ended up in a cell again. Alone again. Hungry again.</p><p>Another morning and, surprisingly, I wasn’t brought into the interrogation room. Instead, I was lead to a small conference room, where, according to the person who escorted me, my lawyers were waiting. Lawyers. I had no idea what was going on, maybe it was some kind of public defenders? But that shouldn’t be the case, as I hadn’t been charged or even been told I was suspected of anything specific yet. I really hoped they weren’t humans. </p><p>The room was slightly bigger than the room in which I’d been interrogated. There was a round table with six chairs, two of which were occupied, and no two way mirror. The room was done up in tones of green and a few, fake, plants were scattered around. In one of the chairs was a brown haired man I’d never seen before. He wore an ill-fitting suit and a purple tie. In the other chair was Vlad. In contrast, his suit fit very well, and his tie was green and silver (of course). Behind him, on either side, were Michael (him of the very big sword, not present at the moment) and Evelyn (her of the very pointy sword, also not present). They wore, what I guess was, body-guard chic, black suits with black ties. I stopped, uncertain of what to do.</p><p>“Close the door Alexis.” Orders. I can follow orders. Door closed I turned towards the table and walked closer. “You don’t look well, daughter.”</p><p>“I… I don’t feel well.” And I wasn’t. I was trembling, I found it hard to focus on anything but the immediate need to eat someone. </p><p>“What happened?”  And I told him. About the police arriving, about the ‘interviews’, about not having had time to eat, about the others helping. The man in the ugly suit looked at Vlad, and when he got the go-ahead he spoke.</p><p>“So they haven’t actually charged you with anything?”</p><p>“No. I don’t think they have anything, Black is just seems to be trying to pin something, anything, on us.” He made some thoughtful noises and wrote something on a pad. </p><p>“And you’ve been recalled within one hour, both times?” I nodded and he wrote some more. “I will look in to this further, and I need a little more time,” he looked at Vlad, who didn’t look back “but I reckon you’ll be out of here, for good, this afternoon.” I continued to nod. Also knowing that it might not be soon enough for me. </p><p>I had never been this hungry before, and didn’t know how close to the edge I really was, but it wasn’t far. Bloodlust must be the stupidest survival trait, ever. Mindlessly rampaging through the world really wasn’t the most effective of ways to keep fed.</p><p>“Everyone but Alexis, leave.” Vlad continued to look at me, pensively, while the others went out. The guards stood just outside the door, but the guy I assumed was an actual lawyer, continued away. I could hear his footsteps down the corridor.</p><p>“I worry for you, daughter.” I couldn’t but agree. “You have, this far, handled yourself graciously, but not for much longer.” I knew he spoke of the hunger. “I cannot allow for you to weaken my guards, even though they can bear it. I can, however, allow for you to have a taste of me.” My eyes went wide with that statement. I don’t think he offered casually. Which also meant that he really did think I was close to the edge. </p><p>“I… appreciate it?” was the best I could come up with. </p><p>“Come here and sit on the floor.” He pointed before removing his jacket. He undid the French cuff and pulled the sleeve up. He then turned his chair so I was sitting with my back between his legs. He put one hand on my head, and held his other arm within biting distance. I bit down, very carefully.</p><p>It felt both more and less intimate than when I’d fed from Emilio and Clay. While I was feeding, he murmured something, I couldn’t tell what it was, but it was soothing. In the end, it was over quite quickly, I didn’t take much and didn’t need to, his blood was very potent. </p><p>“Thank you,” I said. And then I decided to gamble, or I felt insane, or, quite possibly, because I was drunk on the power I’d just ingested “Father.”</p><p>“You are welcome, daughter”. He replied, then started fixing his cuff again. I took that as a sign that I ought to leave the floor. Which proved to be more difficult that it ought to be, as I really did feel drunk. It took considerable effort to walk straight as we exited the room. The police guards took me back to the cell while Vlad and his guards went away. I felt very much better. Not just because of the snack, but also because I could now believe that I was getting out of this. Not only did someone ‘outside’ knew where we were, but there was also a lawyer, who I assume is competent. </p><p>It took a couple of hours before I was put in the bright room with detective Black. Thankfully, the lawyer was there, as well.</p><p>“I’m Peter Brown, I’m miss Smith’s lawyer.” Peter, as was apparently his name, introduced himself. Black did not look happy.</p><p>“I wasn’t aware that miss Smith needed a lawyer.”</p><p>“Well, she seems to have been detained in an unlawful manner. Even though she hasn’t properly accused of anything.” </p><p>“Well, one of her friends has already told us everything. I mentioned this to her yesterday” Black was grasping at straws. “What many people fail at understanding is that loyalty is never endless. Especially when there’s jail time involved. The prisoner’s dilemma never works.”</p><p>“Detective Black. My client has been very gracious so far, by not challenging the clearly unlawful detainment you’ve subjected her and her friends to.” Peter said and Black looked like he was going to have a fit.</p><p>“I’ll let you know...” he started, but Peter the lawyer interrupted with a whole lot of lawyer speak by Peter. In the end, I was sent back to the cell, hopefully for the last time. </p><p>We were released shortly thereafter. I was pretty sure that Black had to concede to Peter and his knowledge of the law that Black seemed to have wilfully flaunted. Black stood nearby when we went out of the reception area glowering at us. I smiled and waved. I can be very petty and there’s nothing wrong with it.</p><p>Outside was a limo waiting. Black, gleaming and with the door open to reveal the pale, cream inside. With Vlad and guards seated in the luxurious and, unexpectedly roomy area. I entered first, followed by Emilio, Clay and Steven. With six people, even the roomy car was a bit crowded. I bowed my head at Vlad as greeting as we drove off.</p><p>“According to Peter you are now free to go. There are also some other people who have worked in the background to make sure Black does not have any reason to come back to you.”</p><p>“Thank you.” A simple thank you can save you in many situations. Especially when you had no idea what to say, really. And it often pays to be polite. “I have a question, if I may?”</p><p>“Yes?”</p><p>“There was something strange in what Black said. I made a joke about vampires, which I know was a bad idea, and he said something about vampires not using rings at parties? Vlad smiled.</p><p>“Vampires without sects sometimes use ‘fake’ vampire parties as a cover to easy access for food. One of the requirements for these parties is to not wear rings. It seems detective Black had some inside information.” Which made my offhand vampire comment even worse. </p><p>“There is one more thing to be addressed. You all need to feed before you return to the coven” dammit, I wanted to stay outside for longer, but I could understand why he didn’t want me to. “Especially you, daughter, but also those who have stood by you. No one is allowed to kill a human in our lands. The only exception is if the High Prince or their heir.” Vlad, the High Prince, said and looked at me. Then he really looked at me. Then he looked at me some more. Then I got it. I blame being almost drunk still.</p><p>“Tonight we hunt, to the death.” I said. The grin that spread across Emilio’s face was predatory. </p><p>“Acceptable. I expect you back after.”</p><p>“Yes, my lord.” </p><p>“And do not get caught by the police. Again.”</p><p>“No, my lord.” I don’t think I’d ever be able to live it down. I just hoped that I was going to be allowed outside again. Like, ever.</p><p>We were let off by the hotel we’d tried to stay at earlier. It was late afternoon, and while the other three of the party would, without doubt, be able to hunt and not get caught during the day, I would not. I’d never done this before and I was filled with trepidation. Because I was going to kill a human. On purpose. And I’d basically ordered the deaths of three more. </p><p>At first, however, something very important. I was going to take a shower and then I was going to sleep for a bit. I really needed it, while sleep deprivation wasn’t as much of an issue with vampires as with humans, it required energy to stay awake. Energy is what I’d been running low on lately. </p><p>Evening came and Clay was the one they’d sent in as an offering to wake me. I don’t do waking up that badly, do I? I didn’t have a chance to ask Clay either, as he left the room as soon as I sat up. I put some clothes on and then went into the common area.</p><p>“What’s the plan?” I asked. I knew what was going to happen, but not how. I’d never done this before.</p><p>“We go out, we hunt, we eat.” Emilio said.</p><p>“I think you should hunt first.” I hedged. Both so that I could see how it was done, but also so that I wouldn’t have to face up to killing someone. Yet. </p><p>“Alexis!” Emilio started, but I cut him off.</p><p>“I’ve never done this before, watching you would help me. Other than that, you ought to be as hungry as I am. More or less.”</p><p>“We will yield to your wisdom, little lady” Steven said, refusing Emilio a possibility to disagree with me. </p><p>“I am so going to regret not protesting this earlier, aren’t I?” Steven just smiled at me. Then out we went. </p><p>Clay and Steven hunted efficiently, and as a pair. They did work as a pair, it was very obvious that they were used to working together and had done so for many many years. They each knew exactly what the other one was doing and why. </p><p>Emilio, on the other hand, hunted with flair and a joy that I hadn’t expected. He was still efficient, and got his prey quickly and quietly, but there was a theatricality to it that was impressive. He was close to the epitome of hunter and clearly at the top of the food chain.</p><p>Me? I was scared and hesitant. I had no idea what I was doing but I’d also suddenly developed  some instincts I didn’t know how to handle. Especially when combined with the hunger that I’d been trying to fight for days. I have no idea how long vampires had been living in groups like the coven but it did make it way easier. In the end, I’d found a homeless older woman. It was easy prey, according to the others and I would have to say I agree. </p><p>After we went home, Emilio and Clay kept talking to me about irrelevant things, mostly to keep my thoughts from what I’d just done, I think. I appreciated it and spent a lot of time carefully NOT thinking about it.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. IV - Ambassador</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>An unexpected visitor makes politics difficult.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Violence. And blood. And whatever has been noted for previous chapters.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>I had been walking the halls of the coven for more than 10 years now. More or less. I still hadn’t figured out how to tell time in the effortless way that the older vampires apparently did. Despite what happened the first time I was let out from the coven, I was allowed outside again, but not immediately. Also, I did manage not to get caught by the police again, something which someone in the coven mentioned every time I returned. </p><p>The almost endless and very uniform hallways now felt like home. If I didn’t think about it, I sometimes still got turned around, but I could also find the small signs that were there to help me get on the right track again. The coven had been intentionally built this way, to make it harder for outsiders to navigate. Did make it harder for friendlies as well. </p><p>This also meant that I’d been a vampire for quite a while. I’d gotten used to it, or at least part of it. This was my life now and despite that I didn’t enjoy all of it, I had to make the best of it. Most of it. I did still disappear on the guards accidentally-on-purpose. Vlad had been better at not chastising me for it and the guards had almost started seeing it as a bit of a game. Well. Some of them had. Those who did, were also the ones who quickly picked up on calling me ‘little lady’ from Clay and Steven. It had been annoying at first, but I’d gotten used to it. Mostly because it was better than some of the alternatives.</p><p>At this very moment, I was going down to the lowest level. Where we kept humans for food. Most of them where there of their own free will. Some where there as a part of business deals, or favours granted. Others were there as a chance to get an eduction or foot up in a chosen field of work. Or, because it’s usually less dangerous to sell your blood than your body. Others had no other place to be, and it was a chance to have a roof over your head and food in your belly. There was also the odd human who enjoyed the feedings, but I made sure to stay away from those, because that was weird.</p><p>There were, however, some people here who weren’t here of their own free will. Mostly it was people who’d been ‘sentenced’ to stay because of crimes against vampires. Yes, it was vampires who did the sentencing. Yes it was us who gained something if they were judged guilty. It wasn’t completely altruistic or fair, but about half were found at fault, half were seen as innocent. </p><p>Two great double doors were the entrance to the humans’ quarters. Flanked by two dark haired guards, tasked with both making sure that vampires behaved themselves and to keep the peace amongst the humans. Vlad had this odd thing where his, and by extension my, personal guards were all blonds (except the red haired Evelyn). Throughout the rest of the coven their hair coloured varied. I’ve no idea why, but also do not feel like asking.</p><p>Inside I found Angelica. Angelica is loud both auditory and visually. Today she was wearing a tube top and pants, both made from bright pink faux snake skin. Her hair was somewhere between blonde and brown and was usually worn in two ponytails with pink bows. She was tall and very thin, and was always, always happy. </p><p>“Angelica, I hope you’re feeling good?” I greeted her. Her whole face lit up with a smile and she turned towards me.</p><p>“ALEXIS!” Even without superhuman hearing, she was ear-piercingly loud. “It’s so great here! Everyone’s so nice and I got a C on my maths’ exam!”</p><p>“Well done you!” I was happy for her. She wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, but she also didn’t have a bad bone in her body.</p><p>“Yes, I’m so happy! But Alexis, why are you wearing green again? I don’t know why you’re doing that? Didn’t I tell you you’d look awesome in a nice turquoise or pale blue?” </p><p>“I wear this because I have to, Angelica. I’ve told you so.” I said, but smiled. Even though I was kind of hesitant to take fashion advice from someone who only wore eye-watering pink. Our conversation was cut short, though, as Steven came and bowed. BOWED! To me.<br/>“The High Prince wants you in his office.”</p><p>“I’m sorry to cut this short, Angelica but...” I gestured at Steven, unsure what to say. </p><p>“Why did he bow to you?”</p><p>“Gotta go, bye Angelica.” I didn’t want to have that particular discussion with Angelica. Especially since I wasn’t really sure of why, either. They were usually polite, but not bowing. I solved the whole thing by leaving. Steven caught up with me but didn’t say anything else. He was, however, smiling which was seldom a good thing. He did stop at the doors that led to Vlad’s office while the guard there, Michael, opened the door to let me in without knocking.</p><p>“My lord.” I said as I knelt and I heard the door shut behind me. </p><p>“Rise, Alexis.” I did. When I looked at him, he was smiling. Why was everyone smiling today? Also, Vlad smiling could mean terrible things. “In a few days an ambassador for another coven will be arriving. They are here to appeal to the Rector Lamia but I also find this an excellent opportunity to introduce you, formally, as my heir.” He said.</p><p>“I… yes? My lord?” What do you even say to that? It was clear that he wanted some kind of comment.</p><p>“I am sure that rumours have been brewing for some time. Emilio has assured me that you are prepared.”</p><p>“Even the dancing?” My mind was blanking a bit now.</p><p>“Even the dancing, Alexis. There will be a ball.” </p><p>“Yes, my lord.” I was… something. “If I may ask, who’s coming?”</p><p>“The envoys are arriving from the Gradeft sect. James, their High Prince, has sent his heir and an entourage of eight in total. They will be staying on the 8th level and I want you to work with them as a guide. They have not, however, given me a reason for their visit, apart from them wanting to make an appeal to the Rector Lamia.” He sounded perturbed about that last bit, but at least I now knew my job in this. </p><p>“I understand, my lord.”</p><p>“You may leave, make sure to be properly prepared for the occation.” </p><p>“I will, my lord.” I said, and took my leave. I returned to my own quarters and my head was spinning with all this new information. Apart from the responsibilities that I was certain Vlad would hand off on me, being his heir – officially- also meant that I might be more of a target. For loads of reasons, by loads of people and in loads of ways. I’m not so sure that I liked that bit at all. When I got back to my rooms, I sent one of the guards there to see if they could track down Emilio. I was going to need help to get through this without screwing it up.</p><p>Emilio arrived in short order and just as I opened my mouth to tell him about what Vlad had said he knelt in front of me, and bowed his head.</p><p>“My lady” he said. </p><p>“No! No, no, no. Get up. Emilio. Please.” </p><p>“As you wish, my lady” he said as he rose. </p><p>“Emilio, please. Why are you doing this?”</p><p>“I’m merely behaving as your station entitles. You’ve now been confirmed as heir of Camrille, one of the great three.”</p><p>“Emilio, you’ve been my teacher for more than ten years, please don’t do this.”</p><p>“If my actions are upsetting, please tell me how to better myself, my lady.” I was about to yell at him in pure frustration, except… he’d given me the out, hadn’t he? He just told me exactly how to fix this.</p><p>“Emilio, you are still my teacher, and I need you as a teacher, not a subject.”</p><p>“I’m glad you figured it out.” Emilio said with a smile. “But you do realise that this is how you are going to be treated from now on?”</p><p>“I. I hadn’t thought of that. It seems so… excessive.”</p><p>“Not only are you going to be treated this way, you have expect it of others.”</p><p>“I don’t…” I had no idea what to say. I wasn’t really a fan of the idea. At all.</p><p>“You’re an extension of your father, which means that the respect due to him also goes to you.”</p><p>“That hadn’t really occurred to me#. I had, dunno, just assumed things would continue as they had” and I had, not sure why. I hadn’t thought about it much, and really hadn’t considered being formally introduced as heir. I just thought I was and that was that. “So what do I need to know about Gradeft?”</p><p>“You already know that their territory limits ours...” Emilio started, with a small smile. He saw right through my very weak effort to change the subject, but he’d rolled with it anyway. For which I was grateful, I needed more time to handle this, even though I apparently now only had a few days in which to get used to it. </p><p>The next few days were like cramming for exams. Emilio was grilling me about the things I already knew, and trying to teach me what to expect as heir. It was gruelling but it did keep me from pondering other things. Like the ball. </p><p>The day before the arrival of our guests, preparations were mostly done. The rooms they were to stay in were finished to Vlad’s, quite exacting, standards. They were further down than I’d expect him to place guests of this calibre. Everyone else staying near those rooms had been emptied to let the guests rest in peace, so to speak. I’d had absolutely nothing to do with the preparations in question apart from having been told what was going on. </p><p>It was time for the guests to actually arrive. They were to be greeted in one of the big halls the podium, this time, had two thrones. The great one in the middle, in which Vlad sat in all his glory. A second smaller one on the right for me. It wasn’t very comfortable, but it was impressive. Most every vampire who was currently staying in the coven was in attendance, standing to either side, allowing our guests to pass through the middle and walk up to the podium. </p><p>I’m not sure what I had actually expected, but it wasn’t Yiorgos Akriotos, the vampire who’d attacked me the first time I was outside. Not that I could, or would, do anything about it now, though. He did not look surprised to see me, however. Yiorgos is also the first to speak, and yes, he was now wearing an heir ring. How did he end up being heir? He wasn’t one last time we met.</p><p>The rest of the group seemed to comprised of Yiorgos childe, and not the one he’d had before, one other vampire with childe combo and four others that I understood to be guards. The two pairs were in front and the suspected guards at the back. They were wearing the colourful shirts that seemed to be a staple within covens and sects. </p><p>When they reached the podium they all knelt and greeted Vlad, as both High Prince and Rector Lamia. Words were spoken from both sides, in Vampiric, a language that’s very archaic and basically just used in this kind of setting. And when annoying fledglings which have to learn it. It was all very pretentious and worked as a very rigid pattern to keep powerful vampires from attacking each other. That last bit still happened, but mostly for other reasons. </p><p>At the very end of the welcoming speech, Vlad stands up.</p><p>“This is my heir, Alexis. She will be your guide while you’re staying here. She will do everything to make sure your visit is as pleasant as possible. I bid you goodbye for now, if you follow her she will lead you to where you can rest.” I stood up, then turned and bowed to Vlad before walking down the three steps of the dais. </p><p>“If you’d please follow me” I said and moved back a bit. They said their goodbyes, bowed and came with me.</p><p>I led them down and across the coven, moving from the second to the eight level where their rooms were located. It wasn’t the shortest route either, the idea was to showcase an inflated size of the coven without being obvious about. We did arrive in a timely manner, though. And in silence, none of the vampires from Gradeft spoke to me. About anything. It was weird.</p><p>“This door, and the next two doors to the right leads to rooms for your use. I hope you will find them to your liking. If you have any questions or if there’s something you need that has not been provided, don’t hesitate to ask. I will be available as your guide for the duration of your stay. Tomorrow you will have a meeting with the Rector Lamia and then there will be a ball in your honour.”</p><p>“I guess these rooms are acceptable” Yiorgos said and entered the door. The other vampires split up and went to the three different doors and disappeared inside, save for one that set up as a guard outside. </p><p>“Goodbye?” I told the doors and left. </p><p>It took me about half and hour to track down Emilio, I really wanted to ask him some questions. Especially ones pertaining to how Yiorgos was now heir. Also, maybe I should have asked who was actually visiting before they arrived. I did find Emilio near my own rooms, as he’d recently exited Vlad’s office. I started walking away from them with Emilio and started talking.</p><p>“When did Yiorgos become Heir? How? Because I’m very sure he wasn’t last...” I was unceremoniously interrupted by Vlad who had come out and stared at me.</p><p>“Last what, Alexis? I was not aware that you knew him.”</p><p>“Time, my lord. Last time.”</p><p>“And when was this?” Had we seriously not told Vlad about when Yiorgos all but attacked me and then actually did and then called the human police? Oops. To be fair, some other stuff did also happen that trip.</p><p>“We ran into him the first time I was allowed out of the coven, my lord.” </p><p>“We will go to my office where you will tell me everything about this.” I bowed and turned around to go where directed. Vlad was looking pensive in the way he did when he was not happy. He wasn’t angry, no, anger was displayed more openly, this was cold and calculating. “You too Emilio.” Emilio bowed and followed me.</p><p>Vlad took his seat behind the massive wooden desk. He looked at us for a long while before indicating we should speak.</p><p>“Well, my lord. What happened was that on the day before the police first came to interrogate us, we were going to a party in a house nearby. On the way there, we ran into Yiorgos and..:” And so I told the story, as quickly but with as much detail as I thought was necessary. Including our suspicions about him, or at least they, having been the once who’d tipped the police off. Emilio was standing stiffly next to me and didn’t say a thing. </p><p>“According to what you have just told me, vampires from another sect intruded on our lands, tried to hunt there. Then harassed my vampires, attacked my heir when they found out who she was and called the human authorities on you when they failed. Did I miss anything?” He was speaking slowly and softly in a way that made me very uncomfortable. “And after all of that, no one saw fit to tell me this?”</p><p>“I… I can’t believe we forgot, there was a lot of other things that happened after that, but one of us should have remembered. I don’t have any excuse for forgetting other than that I did, master.” Since Vlad was the one who’d turned me I could call on him as my master. I’d never done so before, but I hoped it would show that I was sorry for forgetting. And maybe, just maybe, it would make him mellow out some. Though, he’s not really been known for his gentle and forgiving nature.</p><p>“Emilio, you were responsible for everything during that trip, not only did you allow it to happen but you also did not report this. I am disappointed” Vlad said, I felt guilty for feeling relieved when the focus had shifted away from me. We stood waiting, in silence, for what felt like an eternity until Vlad spoke again.</p><p>“Go. I will call you back tomorrow, before the meeting. I have questions that need answers before then.”</p><p>We retreated, very quickly. Just as the door slid shut, I think I heard him mutter something about fainting.</p><p>I all but dragged Emilio back to my rooms. This time, however, I didn’t start speaking until the door had closed behind us.</p><p>“How did no one manage to remember to tell him about it?” I asked. “Apart from you and me, there were six others with us, two of them guards. How?”</p><p>“I don’t know Alexis, but I fear that’s not good enough.”</p><p>“I’m sure it isn’t. I just can’t fathom how eight people managed to forget.” Emilio didn’t say anything for a long while. </p><p>“What’s worse, since there was no retaliation for their transgressions the sect and the High Prince are seen as weak. By omitting to tell our High Prince we made him look weak.” he finally said while staring angrily at a wall. “While their visit now might not have anything at all to do with that, I doubt it.”</p><p>“But it was years ago”</p><p>“You’re thinking like a human, you play the long game now.” I had to shake my head at that. It’d been years, but I was still slightly uncomfortable about the fact that I wasn’t human any more. I looked like a human, most of the time. I acted like a human, most of the time. I felt like a human, most of the time. I think it was the ‘most of the time’ part that wierded me out.</p><p>“I have to go Alexis, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Emilio said and headed for the door.</p><p>“Goodnight” I said, it was odd for Emilio to leave like that, but maybe he was tired too.</p><p>The next morning (or evening or whatever time it was, I was usually going by when I’d slept) I made sure to be prepared early. I was unsure of when the meeting between the Gradeft’s and Vlad was going to be, and he did say he wanted to see me and Emilio before that. After having done my morning ablutions, I waited. And waited. And waited. Didn’t dare to do much else. After a while there was a knock and one of the guards called out that Vlad was waiting for me. I went over there, and I’m very happy it isn’t further, I was nervous.</p><p>“My lord.” I said and knelt. My greeting went completely unnoticed, apparently and neither me nor Vlad moved until Emilio arrived. Once he’d knelt we were both let up.</p><p>“First. I have made some discreet inquiries and it seems as if the previous Heir of Gradeft expired under unusual circumstances. Much to this Yiorgos’ delight, I assume. He is not very well liked in the sect, but he is not hated either. Their High Prince seems to allow him to do pretty much what he wants.” Vlad said and I wondered who he got the information from, and how. There were no phones in the coven, no electricity. Carrier pigeons?</p><p>“Second” he continued. “I have talked to everyone involved, they told the same story you two did yesterday. They did not have reasons not to have told me either, except forgetfulness. Which is not a valid excuse. I expect better.” He glared at us while he continued his counting.</p><p>“Third. This begs the question what to do about the actions that were taken by the Gradefts. Hunting in our territory is bad enough, but harassing our vampires. And attacking my Heir. And even stooping so low as to try to expose vampires to humans. All of them serious, none of them answered for. Yet.”</p><p>“And finally, fourth. This will not be forgotten or forgiven. You will be punished, but not until our esteemed guests have left. Do you understand?” We nodded, almost in tandem. </p><p>“Alexis, I hope your history with Yiorgos will not impede in your duties regarding him or his group of people?”</p><p>“It will not, my lord. I might not like him but I can be civil.” In my head I added ‘and not attack him outright’.</p><p>“You will be at your best behaviour.”</p><p>“I will, my lord” I said and nodded. I hadn’t planned on anything less anyway. I’d show that annoying little prick how you ought to act. </p><p>“You may leave. Alexis, bring the Gradefts to the green meeting room in about two hours.” I nodded, bowed and left.</p><p>On the outside, again, the door had time to shut properly, I turned to Emilio.</p><p>“I need your help.” <br/>¨<br/>“What do you wish?” He asked without turning towards me.</p><p>“I can’t tell time, I need you to help me with that.” It was kind of embarrassing to have to ask for help, but on the other hand, no watches or clocks in the entire coven (as far as I’d found). I had no way to tell time.</p><p>“I will help, Alexis. Do you want me to stay with you until it’s time to leave?”</p><p>“Yes please. I’ll go there and inform them of the time of the meeting and then go back and fetch them, unless they want something in the mean-time.” And that’s what we did. </p><p>Right before the two hour mark I led them to what was called the green meeting room. I tended to call it the miniature throne room. It was a room with a small dais, on which sat a small copy of the throne in the ball room. The walls were covered with green banners with silvery embroidery, the same weird bird that littered my room. There was also a green and grey carpet running down the middle of the floor. </p><p>Everyone entered and bowed, I moved off to the side while Yiorgos and Vlad exchanged traditional greetings. </p><p>“We have an offer of a deal with the High Prince, between our two sects. We need new blood in our pens and want to exchange breeding stock.” Yiorgos said, to my great surprise. Breeding stock? I guess not all covens were run as ours.</p><p>“As your High Prince very well knows, we do not keep breeding stock.” Vlad replied.</p><p>“That is not to say you cannot supply some” Yiorgos hinted.</p><p>“It means that those humans we host are not ours to give away” Vlad said, with a tone of finality in his voice.</p><p>“Too bad. Our second request is for the Rector Lamia.” Yiorgos looked at me, but Vlad ignored him and after a few moments of silence Yiorgos continued “Our sect has grown more than we expected and we need more hunting grounds to sustain our growing population. Especially since you’ve declined our proposition for a trade.”</p><p>That had to be the clumsiest excuse of a ploy I’d ever heard. Vlad looked equally unimpressed.</p><p>“I have not heard of this exceptional growth before. Tell me, how did this come about?”</p><p>“We had an influx of humans who were seen as good candidates for turning and at the same time a lot of our vampires fell in love and bonded with humans. Humans we, naturally, had to turn.”  Bonding is a term for vampire marriage. True bondings are sort of rare, and tend to last. But on the other hand, the bonded pair often spend decades courting. I know that Vlad frowned upon bonding with humans.</p><p>“I assume you have papers with numbers and demands?” Vlad said.</p><p>“Yes, I have them here.”</p><p>“I will take a look at them over the next few days I hope you can forgive me the inconvenience of having to wait for this, but I simply can not keep everything in my head. There is a lot of information I need to gather before I make a decision. Until then you are guests here, take part of our hospitality. Above all join the ball in your honour that will be held later tonight.” I could see that Vlad was not buying any of what Yiorgos was saying. Vlad was also lying, he usually did have all the facts, something he was proud of.</p><p>“We are honoured to take part.”</p><p>“You may leave.”</p><p>Everyone bowed and left. As we’d gotten out of the room, the youngest vampire tried to grab my attention.</p><p>“I’m sorry, lady, but could we possible go feed before the ball? Is there time?” At least he was polite.</p><p>“Yes of course, I’ll take you down to where we house our humans and you can have some time to feed. The ball will be hours yet.”</p><p>“Thank you.” His whole face lit up with a smile. It made me feel really old, for some reason. “I’m Armand Consigli.” Armand was short, though not as short as me. Short medium brown hair and blue eyes, broad cheek bones and a disappearing chin. His shirt was a deep indigo, almost black, but ill-fitting. As if made for someone two sizes larger.</p><p>“Hello Armand, I’m Alexis Dracula Heir of Camrille.” I answered. </p><p>“Wow. Dracula? For real?”</p><p>“Yes, for real.” To be fair, I still had the exact same reaction sometimes. And I am a Dracula myself.</p><p>“And you’re an heir, like Yiorgos. Do I call you lady then?”</p><p>“If you want to be polite.”</p><p>“Okay. Have you lived here long?” </p><p>“I… I’ve lived here for as long as I’ve been a vampire.” I wasn’t really used to questions like this. I don’t think he meant anything with him asking, apart from being friendly and curious. He hadn’t been a vampire for long enough to be jaded yet. </p><p>“Do you like it?”</p><p>“I… uh… I’m comfortable here, yes.”</p><p>“That’s not what I asked, I wanted to know if you like living here?” Now the others of the group were interested. </p><p>“I guess?” I had no idea where he was going with this.</p><p>“You guess?”</p><p>“I haven’t really thought about it.” I confessed. “And I don’t have much of a choice in the matter.”</p><p>“I thought being heir meant you could do anything you wanted.” The comment made Yiorgos quite uncomfortable but he didn’t protest.</p><p>“Nah, it mostly just means the High Prince gets to tell me even more things I have to do.” I tried to joke a bit. I don’t think he got it.</p><p>“I don’t really like...” I never got to know what he didn’t like as his sire caught him by the arm before he could finish the sentence. What followed was a couple of minutes of uncomfortable silence, but we were soon reached the entrance of the humans’ domain. The two guards eyed the foreign vampires suspiciously but opened the doors without comment. </p><p>“Our humans are here of their own free will” I added mostly under my breath “and as such they are to be treated with respect. Ask them, respect a no and do not harm or harass them. Am I understood?” There was grumbling assent from the group and most of them moved off. I felt like a tour guide in the most demented kind of amusement park. Armand stayed near me, however.</p><p>“Um, lady. Could you help me? I haven’t had to ask before.”</p><p>“Of course” I said.</p><p>“Alexis!” the sound of the pink-dressed Angelica tore through the background noise.</p><p>“Hello Angelica.” I almost groaned when I saw her. It wasn’t that I disliked her, I just didn’t feel up to handling her, quite overpowering, personality while the Gradefts were here. I didn’t want it to show, though. “How are you?”</p><p>“I’m fine but Robert fell and scraped his knee earlier when he was trying to impress Iben.” Oh. That explained why Angelica looked so pale, she couldn’t stand the sight of blood. And yeah, I never understood why she agreed to stay here either. “Who’s your new friend?” </p><p>“This is Armand. He’s visiting from another coven.” Said vampire was now looking at me with huge eyes and a look of utter confusion.</p><p>“You don’t keep them locked up?” it was somewhere between a question and a statement, I answered anyway.</p><p>“No we don’t. They’re here of their own volition, as I said earlier. So we ask them if we can feed.” I turned to the bubbly pink-clad human who was now watching Armand suspiciously. “Armand needs to feed, do you know someone available? He’s new.” </p><p>“Well, Robert’s in sick-bay getting patched up. Cody has left. Maybe Shawn? He’s usually patient.” Angelica spoke way to fast, as she usually did, but I caught up at the end.</p><p>“Well then, Armand, let’s go find Shawn.” I said and let Angelica lead the way. She managed to find him on her third try, which was way better than I’d done. Armand fed, a bit messily (Angelica went pale again) but didn’t harm Shawn. </p><p>“Alexis?” Angelica said when Armand had finished (and thanked Shawn).</p><p>“Yes?”</p><p>“Don’t you need to feed too? You ran away yesterday.” </p><p>“I’m fine Angelica.”</p><p>“Which doesn’t mean you aren’t hungry! You can drink from me.” She said, grabbed my arm and pulled me over to a couple of benches near a wall.</p><p>“I don’t...” I tried to protest but was cut short.</p><p>“I promise to drink my orange juice after. Come on!” I could hear Armand trying to suppress laughter behind me. I gave in however, and fed from her. As I moved away, Armand was watching me, curiously, studiously. It made me quite uncomfortable.</p><p>“You’re beautiful” He said stepping towards me. I was about to protest when someone screamed. </p><p>I moved towards the sound, noticing that other people were moving to or away from it as their nature dictated. I was very sure that the Gradeft vampires were somehow involved in whatever it was that had happened. I didn’t want to handle it, I especially didn’t want to handle it politely. If they’d hurt one of my humans they deserved to pay. But I’d been ordered to play nice. For now.</p><p>The scene that I arrived at was less gruesome than I expected. Yirogos, his childe and Amrand’s sire was standing near a human who was laying on the floor. The man was rolled into a defensive ball, cradling one of his arms. He was crying and making small sounds of hurt while the three vampires were just standing around, looking at him. Most other humans seemed to have fled the immediate area, but there was one other human on the floor, possibly unconscious.</p><p>“What did you do?” I asked and turned to Yiorgos. They all turned towards me when I spoke.</p><p>“This human was...”</p><p>“No. I asked what you did. Not what the human did.” I interrupted him.</p><p>“I didn’t do anything.” </p><p>“You just stood there and the human randomly crumpled into a ball and began screaming?” I asked, incredulous. Yiorgos just smiled at me, smugly. Thankfully the guards and a few other of our vampires had arrived.</p><p>“If you’d please take the injured humans to the infirmary, I will remove the vampires.” I turned towards the offending vampires in question “Who will not be allowed back here without escort” they looked a bit annoyed at that. “Then ask the humans what happened and make sure a report reaches my Father.”</p><p>“You can’t do that” Yiorgos’ childe protested. It looked as if Yiorgos wanted to say something as well, but didn’t.</p><p>“I’m sorry, I can’t do what?”</p><p>“Ask the humans, they’ll just lie!”</p><p>“That’s not for you to do decide. We are leaving now.” And thankfully they followed me. I couldn’t have forced them but they did come. I led them back to their rooms and left with a terse “I will see you at the ball”.</p><p>I hiked upwards hoping to be able to catch Vlad in his office. I wanted to explain what’d happened to him. I now understood that part of their behaviour was due to the fact that they were, for several reasons, convinced they could get away with it. And this was one of the reasons our forgetting of the earlier incidents were so very bad.</p><p>I was in luck, Vlad’s guards were outside his office door, signalling he was there. As I approached the door, one of them knocked and announced me. I’m guessing they really knew me by now. I stopped at the door and waited for either an invitation or a dismissal. It took only a few moments before I was granted entry. I entered and performed the usual greeting.</p><p>“What happened?” Vlad asked after having granted me leave to stand. His desk was covered in books and loose pages of paper with lots of writings on them. He was very focused on something he was reading, or at least appearing to be so. I started out being curious of how he knew something had happened, but then realised that otherwise I wouldn’t be here.</p><p>“At least one of Yiorgo’s vampires attacked our humans. As far as I know, at this moment, two humans are injured but I don’t know the severity. The vampires in question deny it but I asked the guards down with the humans to ask around and see if they can get an idea of who did what.” I took a breath and then added “my lord.” </p><p>“You are upset because of this.”</p><p>“Yes!” and I was. “my lord” was tacked on again. I don’t do well with niceties when I’m upset, apparently. </p><p>“Good.” that was not the comment I had been expecting. Vlad looked up from whatever he had been reading. “You are Heir. Everyone in this sect and in this coven is yours. This also means that they are yours to protect.”</p><p>“I… understand, my lord.”</p><p>“See to it that you do. I will assume you know understand some of the consequences of not having retaliated earlier.”</p><p>“Yes, my lord. I do. Mostly. I think”.</p><p>“I am going to chose to ignore the last statement. I will see you at the ball. Wear a dress.” I bowed and left before he could see my grimace. I do not like dresses. I especially don’t like wearing dresses, they get in the way. </p><p>I had to send for Emilio again. Which was unusual, he was normally hanging around most of the time. I wanted help picking a dress. I had very little experience with balls, and dresses. I really do prefer trousers. </p><p>Emilio pointed out a slim dress of shiny green with silvery embroidery. Not real silver, though, as it didn’t burn. It was way less poofy than I’d expected but still full enough in the skirt so that I would be able to move enough to dance. And to twirl prettily. Well, at least the dress could twirl prettily, I still sucked at dancing. </p><p>The big ballroom had been decked out to show off. Candelabras with amazing amounts of crystals filled the ceiling, occasionally sending a small rainbow across the walls or floor. The dais was at the end of the hall, and behind the two thrones a giant green and silver banner hung. Along the rest of the walls were banners the colours of the bloodlines of the Camrille sect. </p><p>Most everyone currently in the coven was there, in finery. Colourful dresses, shirts, clothes in general. Finery all around. A group of vampires were sitting on a small scene in a corner, fingering instruments they’d play later. For now, it was eerily quiet. Everyone was waiting, I was sitting next to Vlad, who was, I kid you not, preening. Tugging the cuffs, smoothing down the collar and at one point, when I wasn’t paying enough attention, he started tugging at pieces of my hair that weren’t perfect enough. I glared at him and he stopped.</p><p>When he was suitably perfect he gestured and two guards opened the main doors. Outside, the guests were waiting, all eight of them. They were also dressed in their finest, but I couldn’t help but notice that the two youngest wore clothes that didn’t quite seem to fit right. Maybe they hadn’t had time to fix some before they left, having just heard of the ball or something.</p><p>They all entered, carrying a couple of gilded boxes. They walked all the way to the dais, bowed and presented the boxes. Yiorgos waxed poetic about the riches they, apparently, held and Vlad looked suitably impressed and thankful, the gifts changed hands. Lots of words were spoken and in the end, Vlad rose and clapped his hands. The music started, vampires started to mingle and the Gradefts moved off. The ball had started.</p><p>There was music. And dancing. And humans walking around as portable snacks. And dancing cards. Or at least one dance card, mine. Twelve slots, four slots taken by Yiorgos and friends and the rest by Camrille vampires. The very first of which was taken by Vlad. </p><p>Vlad was an excellent dancer. Not that I had expected anything less. Things he did, he tended to do everything he did excellently. I really tried not to mess up too badly and I think I managed it. I’m pretty sure Emilio had reported my lack of dancing-prowess because he didn’t lead me into anything too complicated. </p><p>Next on the car was Yiorgos. He was an average dancer, but too much of a slimy creep to contort himself with the grace needed for anything more than that. I might be projecting. He also started speaking to me, while dancing, and that made it harder to concentrate on what I was doing.</p><p>“Imagine having you in my arms at last.” A great opening line. Really. </p><p>“I usually don’t strive to make nightmares come true.”</p><p>“At least you dream of me.”</p><p>“To be perfectly frank, I’d forgotten all about you until you showed up yesterday.” I said and he looked insulted. I could also feel him gripping me tighter. I wasn’t afraid he’d do something unfortunate, not with all these witnesses around, but it wasn’t comfortable. </p><p>“What? I worked so hard to make an impression.”</p><p>“Yeah, well. That’s life I guess. You attack a random girl and all she wants to do is forget about it.” The dancing continued even though he’d stiffened up again. He was quiet for a bit before speaking again.</p><p>“So what you’re saying is that you haven’t spoken to anyone about it?” He said with a little bit of trepidation. While I wanted to see Yiorgos as a stupid idiot-head, I don’t think he’d risen to Heir if he was. </p><p>“Oh. Well. I fixed that recently.” I said and looked towards the dais. Vlad was off somewhere else, but I think Yiorgos got the hint. He didn’t say anything else as the music wound down and the song ended. I escaped his clutches with a little more haste and a little less grace than I’d ought to.</p><p>The next few dances were uneventful. I even managed a couple of breaks to look at all the pretty dancing going on. Not everyone was a good dancer, to be fair, it was a mix of proficient and bad dancers. But most everyone seemed to at least enjoy themselves. The difference in skill made the dance floor even more mesmerizing as it added a drop of randomness that I don’t think would be there if everyone was of equal skill. The pretty and colourful clothes only added to the coordinated chaos that was taking place.</p><p>My very last partner was Armand, Yiorgos’ offspring. He was not very good at dancing, which I found refreshing. I got to be the experienced one for once. I guess that’s one of the downsides of being the youngest amongst beings that lived to be hundreds and hundreds of years old. You were always going to be leagues behind the next guy. What I also noticed, when he grabbed my hand, was that he wasn’t wearing a ring. </p><p>“Thank you for dancing with me, lady” Armand said in a soft voice.</p><p>“No need to thank me, I’m pretty sure this was set up.”</p><p>“Why?”</p><p>“Because politics.”</p><p>“I don’t understand.”</p><p>“Me neither” I said and laughed.</p><p>“No, I mean, I really don’t understand.”</p><p>“Oh. Well. Most of what the older vampires do are politics. They hold on, very rigidly, to the rules because they don’t want to accidentally start a fight. The older they get, the more jealously they seem to guard their lives. So they avoid putting it in danger.”</p><p>“I hadn’t noticed. But… how do you know the rules?”</p><p>“Doesn’t your sire teach you? Or do you have another teacher?”</p><p>“Not really, well. He teaches me some stuff. Maybe he hasn’t gotten to that part yet.”</p><p>“Yes. That might be it.” I said, trying to cover my surprise. The rules governing living amongst vampires were the first things I learned. I was curious as to what Yiorgos had been teaching the boy.”</p><p>“Want to dance again?” Armand asked as the music changed. </p><p>“Okay.” I answered before really thinking it through. I was still trying to figure out the actual relationship between Armand and Yiorgos. </p><p>So we danced another dance together before excusing myself from Armand. I stayed around at the ball for a while longer before bidding everyone a good night. But not before getting permission to leave. Of course. </p><p>The next day I ended up speaking to Armand a lot again. He’d invited me in, to the displeasure of his sire, and I wasn’t adverse to discussing things with him. The more we talked, the more I realised that something wasn’t what it should have been. Armand might be new, but there were so many fundamental things about being a vampire that he didn’t know about. Now, it did take about two years until I found out that vampires did have an issue with sunlight, but there’s a definite difference between having holes in your knowledge and having almost no knowledge at all. On the other hand, Gradeft definitely did things differently than we did in Carmille. </p><p>Armand spoke to me quite openly, but I could see that the other vampires tried to quell his ‘enthusiasm’ a bit. I wonder if he was just this open with strangers naturally and they hadn’t had time to teach him differently or if is naïvety was something they’d, for some reason, fostered in him. He was young and new as a vampire, barely a year old. The others, when Armand touched on something he shouldn’t have had, tried to change the subject or derail the conversation in any other way. I let them, because they let me know as much as Armand by what subjects they tried to make us avoid.</p><p>They didn’t want to talk about vampires bonding with humans. Or where they’d found those humans, or all the other humans they’d “found suitable for turning”. They also didn’t like subjects such as the lack of a ring on Armand and, according to him, several others of the younger vampires in the sect or the state of their human ‘herd’. </p><p>At the end of every day I reported what we’d talked about and that they Gradefts had done to Vlad. Most of it was trivial, but things like the revelation that someone in Gradeft had turned children into vampires really struck something with Vlad. Turning children is bad, for several reasons. Chief amongst them is that, for the survival of vampires as a race, we needed to be mostly invisible to humans. This means that we need to be smart and at least understand human empathy. Monsters, killers who kill indiscriminatingly, are easier to find. We want to stay hidden. Children who haven’t matured haven’t properly developed empathy and are therefore very bad candidates for making vampires. This is also why I had been sent off to live with humans, to grow up ‘proper’.</p><p>About a week after the Gradefts had arrived, Vlad announced that it was finally time to meet with the ambassador again to give his verdict on their plea. I was told to tell them to expect this a couple of hours in advance. To give Yiorgos time to prepare for the meeting. </p><p>Said meeting was held in the miniature throne room again. And again I was allowed inside, even though I technically shouldn’t. Yiorgos looked as if he was to protest, but didn’t I might be the Heir of the High Prince, Rector Lamia was not a role which had an heir. It was one of the only positions in vampiredom that was still duelled for. To the death. Might makes right.</p><p>“Welcome ambassador” Vlad said when both Yiorgos and me had greeted him properly. I’d once again moved off to the side to be unobtrusive. </p><p>“I’m honoured to be here.”</p><p>“I hope your stay here have been to your liking.”</p><p>“It has. Everyone has been good to us.”</p><p>“I am glad to hear that. Again, I apologize for the extended stay, it was not my intention to keep you for this long. But sometimes I need time to make the best decision possible. I hope you understand.” Vlad said and I had no idea why he was this gracious with Yiorgos. While he normally wasn’t rude to anyone, he was in charge and knew it.</p><p>“Have you come to a decision yet?” Yiorgos asked, as impatient as I felt. Which is never a good thing where Vlad was concerned.</p><p>“I have.” Vlad said and sat up a bit straighter. His voice smooth as a lover’s caress. Not only did he, usually, have a way with words, he could also modulate his voice to make a word mean something completely different, or nothing at all. “I have decided not to grant you a bigger territory.”</p><p>“You can’t do that!” Yiorgos protested. </p><p>“I can and I will. No matter how I try to understand, it should not have been possible for your sect to outgrow your coven this quickly. That would take an excess of each of the vampires who are a part of the sect to have sired three new vampires in the last 15 years.” Yiorgos blanched at this ‘revelation’. “I would have thought this completely unlikely, except it seems to be exactly what you have done. Is it not?”</p><p>“I don’t know what...”</p><p>“On top of that. You have been encroaching on your neighbouring lands with impunity, ignoring the boundaries that have been set. You have thus neglected to heed the intercoven relationships that are important to keep the peace. Keeping the peace is crucial in keeping the humans from finding out about us. You have also turned children, which is forbidden” Vlad took a, very theatrical, breath and continued. “You, personally, also attacked my Heir and two humans who live in the coven. I will not let that stand.”</p><p>“But I..”</p><p>“There will be no concessions made. You will take what I’ve said back to your High Prince and I expect a swift response.”</p><p>“This is crap!” Yiorgos exploded. “Who’re you to say this? You’re a pathetic excuse of a Rector Lamia, you can’t even keep your own people safe!” </p><p>I had no idea why Vlad let him continue yelling. As Yiorgos did, he started moving forward and lifting his fists. </p><p>“You’re a coward!” Yiorgos continued. “You’re just angry because we had a bit of fun with a couple of humans and because of that you refuse the rights of an entire sect. You’re threatened because we’ve grown more than you want!” While he was ranting he was waving his hands around. Though I noticed that he wasn’t suicidal enough to actually move. On the other hand, I could feel Vlad’s mood change from puzzled bemusement to anger, and then even further. It felt as if my brain was infested by burning wasps. Angry burning wasps.</p><p>“I do not care for your tone, or what you are accusing me of. I do not punish someone for the deeds of another. You planned it, just to see what the response was. While I do not involve myself with the day to day in your sect, it does not mean that I do not know what is happening. Or that I approve of it. You will stop this foolishness and accept the ruling as it stands.”</p><p>“I will not...” Yiorgos started and moved forwards. The angry wasps in my head multiplied and my skin felt as if it was on fire. I realized that it was Vlad’s anger, manifested by his power. Yiorgos stopped. Then staggered down on one knee. He started listing to the left just as I noticed I was as well. The angry wasps had grown even more furious and the world was going grey, from the edges in.</p><p>I woke up with Emilio hovering over me. It took a bit of time but I found that I was in my own bed, in my rooms. </p><p>“You’re awake!” Emilio exclaimed, a little bit too happily. Made my head hurt even more.</p><p>“What happened?” I managed.</p><p>“Well. You see” Emilio started but fell quiet for a bit. “Our lord used a little more power than he meant to.”</p><p>“Doesn’t help, Emilio” I said and closed my eyes. </p><p>“The high prince was a bit upset that the ambassador didn’t want to do his bidding. So he made him.”</p><p>“Made him?” Closing my eyes hadn’t helped the pain any, but it did make the nausea calm down a bit.</p><p>“Uh. Yes.”</p><p>“Where’s...”</p><p>“The contingent from Gradeft have all left to travel back and deliver the message.”</p><p>“No, where’s ‘our lord’?” Apparently, despite the headache I was well enough to manage being sarcastic.</p><p>“He’s… somewhere.”</p><p>“He’s hiding, you mean?” Even though my eyes were still closed, I noticed Emilio bristling. I heard how he straightened up in the chair and felt how he put his hand on the bed.</p><p>“I wouldn’t say that. But you have been unconscious for nine days.”</p><p>“What?” I opened my eyes and sat up. Which in hindsight was a very bad idea. Thankfully Emilio was there to catch me before I fell. He put me back down against the pillow before he answered.</p><p>“I’m not sure of the mechanics behind it, but the High Prince implanted the desire to obey into the ambassador. Very firmly. Unfortunately you seem to have been caught in the backlash. We didn’t…” He stopped himself. “I’m glad you’re okay.”</p><p>“So he is hiding.”</p><p>“Yes.” Emilio finally admitted. “How are you feeling?”</p><p>“My head is hurting. The room seems to be spinning. But I don’t have a burning desire to do everything Vlad asks me. I’m going to go back to sleep. Will you… stay?”</p><p>“I’ll stay, Alexis. I’ll tell your father you’re okay, but I’ll be back.”</p><p>“Thank you.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This story exists in other places, but unfinished and unpolished. This is my way of trying to fix the errors I made back then. Hopefully it turns out a better story for it.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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